How To (Not) Start Your Pokemon Journey
by Blazonix
Summary: Jace is 12 years old with all the emotions that go with it. He really doesn't want to start his own pokemon journey. His (fake) older brother gives him no choice in the matter.
1. It's Not Running Away

He opens his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling and wonders where he is. It hits him a moment later—he's in his new room.

His new room in the Johto region, he thinks bitterly.

He spent most of the trip from Unova to Johto riding amongst boxes, unconscious. He's entitled to forget about his new nightmare.

He stretches, pulling at the seams of old pajamas, and tries to figure out how to get out from going to school.

It was one thing to keep his head down in a big city full of other kids; it's another to remain anonymous amongst only a handful of classmates. Having a funny accent definitely won't help.

He's in the middle of yawning when he spots something out of place.

 _I don't remember having a Banette doll_.

He blinks down at the life-like doll sitting in the middle of floor.

It giggles at him.

"Roger," he screams, "come get your creepy pokemon before it _eats me!"_

 _..._

He's fuming as he eats his breakfast—some strange meat and rice combination.

His mother is embracing their new Johto lifestyle a little too well. He refuses the chopsticks for a spoon, and the metal clanks loudly against his teeth.

"Oh come on, Samson's not that bad," his older brother says with a stupid smile on his face.

The Banette giggles at him from his brother's arms. The glower on his face is magnificent, he's sure.

"Your pokemon has been harassing me since you got it. 'Not so bad' are not the words I'd use," he speaks slowly since he's talking to an idiot.

"Samson's just trying to be friendly," Roger denies cheerfully.

It's the same defense Roger always uses, and so like always, he responds with,

"So it can _eat_ me."

Roger just smiles at him, and he finishes breakfast in silence.

The Banette staring at him the whole time trades his uneasiness about school for general uneasiness. It's strangely freeing.

"So, where's Mom?" He asks, placing his bowl in the sink.

A strange expression crosses his brother's face for a split second before he goes back to his default smile.

"She's off to Ecruteak City, said she wanted to do the tourist thing before settling down here," Roger says brightly.

He snorts.

"Of course she does. We're in the freaking middle of nowhere," he waves his arms for emphasis.

They didn't just move from the big city to a smaller one, oh no. They don't even have neighbors.

"I'm going to have to walk _hours_ to get to school," he complains without thinking.

"Oh yes, about school," Roger begins.

He groans.

"We're not talking about it."

"I think we are," his older brother singsongs, Banette bouncing in his arms.

"I'm not going today," he says defensively.

"Of course not, it's far too late for that. How about you come work with me today?"

"I said I'm not—huh?"

He stares dumbfounded at his brother. Roger's a pokemon breeder, a great one. Surely he's not asking a good-for-nothing kid like him for help?

"Come. Work. With. Me. Today." Roger repeats brokenly as if speaking to a small child.

Roger has never allowed him to skip, and he's never been asked to help either.

"Work with you on the farm? I'll have to feed them and, and brush them, right?"

He strains his memory for any hints as to what Roger does on a daily basis, but it all escapes him.

"Are you sure? I'm not…very good when it comes to pokemon."

That's putting it mildly.

Roger's smile only gets wider.

"All it takes is a little practice. You'll do fine," his brother reassures.

He eyes the silent Banette that's still staring at him.

"No ghost pokemon?"

"No ghost pokemon," Roger says firmly.

Well, it was either this or going to school, so—

"Do I need to get changed?"

That it doesn't go well is putting it mildly.

His older brother is at first eager to show him the grooming basics in pokemon care. It doesn't last long.

After accidentally setting off a mini stampede of Ponyta—he never knew they were that easy to startle—Roger puts him on feeding duty only.

Armed with a giant bag of chow, and a "There's no way you can mess that up," he's not exactly brimming with confidence.

Ten seconds later, his brother has to rescue him from an aggressive Munchlax of all things. His face is bright red as he's handed a case of vitamins instead.

"There shouldn't be any problem," Roger reassures him, "since pokemon don't really care for vitamins."

He gives it a shot with only the slightest trepidation.

"Hey don't eat that, Roger said you had to eat the purple one! Put that down! Hey, I said— _Ow_! _You little monster_ —"

"And we're done here," Roger swoops in, grabbing the tiny Houndour by the scruff of its neck.

He glowers up at his older brother, nursing his slightly swollen hand. Roger only gives the Houndour a light swat and shoos it away.

"I freaking hate pokemon. _All of them,"_ he growls.

"Oh, don't be like that," Roger says lightly, scooping up the fallen vitamins.

"I'm serious," he tells him angrily. "I hate them. They're all horrible. Do you know how many times they tried to bite me when I was just trying to give them food?"

"They were just hungry. That's all."

"No, they're all just monsters that should die—"

A smack to the head has him seeing stars. He stares up at his brother with wide eyes.

" _Don't ever say that again,_ " Roger's eyes harden. "These pokemon deserve love and respect."

Don't I deserve it too, he doesn't say, eyes blinking rapidly.

"These pokemon are working hard for us to live. What are you doing? All you've done is complain these past few weeks!"

He can feel the tears gathering at the back of his eyes—no doubt because his head still hurts—and he can feel something closing off his throat. It tastes a lot like resentment.

"Your bad attitude's been affecting everyone around you, even these pokemon! I'm at the end of my rope!" Roger says, clutching his apron.

"If you don't want me around, all you had to do was say so," he manages to say scratchily.

His visions a little blurry, but he can see the gate well enough. He stomps off towards it.

"Hey, get back here! Jace!" His brother yells.

He thinks he can see the jeering faces of the pokemon watching him go as the gate swings shut. He goes for a walk.

(He doesn't run away because he's tried that before, and he knows Roger will just drag him back. He'd never survive by himself anyways.)

He stares at his jagged reflection at a little stream he's found. He can't actually see anything as it's too blurry for some reason, but he's seen the mirror enough times to know what's looking back.

His hair's a spiky black mess that Roger refuses to cut. His eyes are bigger than he'd like, but he loves his dark purple eyes. It's only because it reminds him of Dad.

He wonders if it's possible to hate yourself after only twelve years of living. He scowls and decides that it's not only possible, but it's his depressing reality.

He smacks the water, splashing himself.

Great, now I'm wet, he thinks angrily.

His chest starts heaving and water runs down his face. Eyes stinging, he wonders if he got anything in them accidently.

"You're twelve now," he repeats to himself dully. "It's time to be a man. Do not cry, crying is for _boys_."

His mother has been telling him that since he was ten, changing the year as time goes by. Roger's never said anything differently—and he's definitely never seen his older brother cry—so it must be true.

He'll never be a man at this rate, he thinks as tears roll down his face.

"It's nothing to cry about," he whispers to himself, furiously wiping his eyes.

He's always known that his older brother loved pokemon more than him just as Mom has always loved Roger more than him.

And Dad…

Well, the man had loved pokemon to the point he forgot to send home birthday cards on the right date. He even forgot his sons' names sometimes. He still has the cards with "Jason" written on them. They're in a box under his bed.

Bed, he thinks, sounds good actually.

He's been bitten, pushed, and tripped all day. Sleeping away the rest of this awful day sounds like a plan.

His alarm blares, and it takes willpower to push open his eyes.

3 a.m.

He stares at the clock dully and wonders, why?

It's either go to school or deal with Roger. It's no contest; this time he'll take school. If he gets dressed quick enough, he might even miss his older brother all together.

He forgets to account for something; it's pitch black outside. He stares down at what he thinks is the road to town.

Supposedly if he sticks to the road exclusively, he'll be safe enough from any wild pokemon.

He shifts his backpack uneasily. He really should have grabbed a flashlight or a lantern. A light comes on in the house, and he bolts down the creepy road without a second thought.

He keeps going until night turns to day, and he can finally see.

Red and orange fills the sky and lights up the area with a soft hue. Dew glistens on the leaves, and the colors around him are amazing.

He could care less; he just wants to know how much longer he has to walk. It's been _hours_. His legs feel like they're about to fall off, and his shoulders ache from the straps of the backpack.

He swears he should have been at the school by now.

It's not a major city or anything; the school is run out of someone's home in something resembling a town. His expected classmates aren't even supposed to be his own age. Cinderberry is pretty far out, but he should have hit it by now, right?

Maybe I should turn around, he thinks for the fiftieth time.

The sun is completely overhead now, and he can feel the back of his neck and ears burning. He knows without a doubt he's missed the school.

He knows he should turn around and at least go back home—

But he can't seem to do it. His legs have gone beyond aching, but he can't get them to stop going forward. It's pretty weird.

He can't even convince himself to walk backwards, and when he thinks about going back to his new home, his chest hurts a little. He must be getting sick.

(He's not running away, he tells himself. He'd never be able to survive on his own. He's just…going for a walk, that's all.)

He sees a field full of Miltank in the distance first. He marvels at it for a moment before almost running into a sign.

"Moomoo Farm," he reads out loud.

"Is this for milk?" He asks the air beside him.

He looks at the building and feels an intense curiosity come over him. Well, he bites his lip, surely they wouldn't mind answering a few questions?

He hesitates at the door, and definitely doesn't keep his back to the Miltanks, but manages to knock confidently enough.

Turns out the couple running the place are more than happy to answer his questions. They're even happy to share some of their Moomoo milk with him!

He downs the milk faster than what's polite, but he didn't realize how hungry he is. They shove some more milk at him, this time with cookies, and he knows he is their biggest fan for life.

"So, what brings a kid like you all the way out here? Pretty boring for sight-seeing," the man pushes some more cookies towards him.

"I just moved here," he says through a mouthful of goodness, "and I was just seeing what was nearby."

Which is sort of true, but the lady looks over towards her husband.

"I don't remember anyone moving near the farm?" She queries.

He thinks about lying for a moment before realizing the guilt would eat him alive.

"I…kinda got a bit lost," he admits.

"I mean, I can get home from here!" He tells them hurriedly. "But I just don't know where 'here' is."

The couple shares a glance and he wonders if he's overstayed his welcome.

Should've just lied, he thinks glumly.

"Do you know where Olivine City is?" The lady asks gently.

He perks up.

"I know where that's at! Why?"

He remembers the geography map he had pored over when Mom had first announced their moving.

The man gives him a pitying look. He thinks about it.

"Oh. Um, how far is it from here?"

"If you're following the road out from here, you'll get there in thirty minutes, fifteen minutes if you're fast," the lady tells him.

Olivine City is very far from home. It'll be dark by the time he gets home, and he's had enough of traveling through dark, creepy woods by himself.

So…

"I'll call my family and tell them I'm spending the night there once I get to the Pokemon Center," he decides.

They tell him he's welcome to use their phone. That he can stay the night there, no trouble at all, but he manages to convince them he'd like to see Olivine City before heading home.

(It's not a lie; he really wants to see what a beach looks like. He really was unconscious through the whole move.)

They see him off with some wrapped up cookies and a sandwich, and he promises to come by and visit again. They tell him to make sure he brings a pokemon for safety, and he manages to not make a face at his new favorite people.

The day he gets a pokemon is the day he turns into a simpering girl.

He takes the path and gets to Olivine City in no time. It is quite simply amazing.

The scent of the ocean is drifting on the breeze along with the smell of food from vendors. The lighthouse is _huge_. And the beach! How could anyone swim out in that without drowning?

(He's not thinking about his older brother waiting for him in a house in the middle of nowhere. He's not.)

He has fun sight seeing until the sun goes down.

...

He stares at the phone, finger hovering over the call button.

It shouldn't be this hard, he thinks.

It's just Roger. Mom's not home yet, and she doesn't bother picking up the phone anyways. This isn't something out of the ordinary; in fact it's been happening more and more often lately.

He throws a "baby fit" (Mom's words, not his), storms off, cools down, and Roger welcomes him home without mentioning anything.

It's normal, so why is this so hard? Just hit the button, he tells himself.

"Yo, if you're just going to stare at it all day, how 'bout you let others use it? Some of us actually have calls to make," an irritated voice interrupts him.

"S-Sorry!" He slams the receiver down, face bright red.

He scuttles out the way of the scary-looking guy, stomach tied in knots. Someone grabs him by the shoulders, and he goes stiff as a board.

"Hey now, that kid was trying to make a hard phone call, couldn't you tell?" A much younger voice utters above his head.

He looks up.

It's a teenage boy he's never seen, but he knows that jacket anywhere—it's an Ace jacket. Only the best wear them; only the trainers who have eight gym badges can receive the jacket.

He doesn't really pay attention to what's being said around him; he's too busy admiring the cool-looking jacket. He totally wants one.

Now if only there was a way to get one without a pokemon—

His daydreaming gets cut short when he's suddenly pushed under a nearby table. He doesn't have a clue about what's going on, but he does recognize the sound of pokeballs opening. A sliver of fear takes his breath away.

The table obscures his view; all he can make out is the roar of giant-sounding pokemon and the rage-filled screams of Nurse Joy.

(To be honest, Nurse Joy was the scariest thing that day.)

He, the Ace trainer, and the scary-looking guy are banished from the Center in short order. It's unfair, but he's beginning to see that everything in life is unfair.

He's sitting against the wall outside of the Pokemon Center, picking at a scab, and wandering if he needs to go back to Moomoo Farm after all, when a shadow falls across him.

"Hey," the Ace trainer says from above him.

"What do you want?" He asks dully.

"Well, I kind of deserve that one," the trainer scratches the back of his head.

"Alright, kid," the Ace trainer grins, "since that was totally my fault I owe you one. What can I do to make it up to you?"

He glares up at the older boy.

"Get me a hotel room, dinner, and dessert."

The Ace trainer stares down at him.

"You don't even hesitate, do you?"

"I would have had all those things if you hadn't gotten me kicked out," he reminds the teen.

The trainer rubs the back of his head again.

"Fair enough, we'll start with dinner then."

The older boy brightens up as a thought hits him.

"I know a great place. It serves the best pickled pickles!"

He blinks up at the trainer.

"Can pickles be pickled?" He asks, curious.

"Don't know, but that's what they're advertised as," the Ace trainer says cheerfully.

"By the way, name's Kyle," the teen tells him as they wait for their food.

"Jace," he replies shortly.

"Not very talkative, are you?" Kyle questions.

He glowers at the trainer over his glass of water. This is not the beginning of a beautiful relationship; he doesn't have to be friendly or polite.

"That's okay!" Kyle says cheerfully, "I can talk for the both of us! So, did you know I've been _everywhere_? Like, okay, so I started out in Kanto, but…"

He resists the urge to bang his head into the table, if only barely.

He's not quite sure if what he ate was a pickle, but it _was_ good. He makes a mental note to stop by again.

Next time, he'll come without the chatterbox that couldn't stop talking about how awesome he is through the whole meal.

"Man, oh man, that was good," the Ace trainer pats his stomach with a satisfied sigh.

He can only nod his agreement.

"So, hotel room? Not sure where to go for that one," Kyle tells him as he leans against the restaurant's outside wall. "I usually just sleep on the Pokemon Center couches."

"Well, that was my plan," he reminds the teen.

"I know, I know!" The Ace trainer rubs the back of his head in what he's beginning to believe is a nervous tic.

"Tell you what, I'll go ask at that store across the street. Wait here," Kyle commands before taking off.

Like a moron, he waits for the Ace trainer to come back. He eventually realizes it doesn't take thirty minutes to ask for hotel information.

Kyle's not coming back.

Should have seen that coming, he thinks.

He feels his face burning in embarrassment. Of course the guy left him; they always do.

He gets up off the cement with shaky legs and begins the trudge to Moomoo Farm. He hopes the couple's offer still stands because otherwise he has no idea know what to do.

(He still hasn't talked to Roger. What if his older brother no longer cares?)

The path is dark, unlit without even the moon to brighten the way.

It shouldn't be a surprise that he accidently steps off the path, and in trying to find it again, walks into the grassy area.

When a screeching Raticate jumps at him, fangs bared, he is surprised. He is also very, very terrified.

A scream rips it way out of his throat, and his legs give out on him. He can't see it, but he knows the Raticate is about to jump at him again.

He's dead, he's dead—

He feels a sting on his left arm, can feel the pokemon's huge incisors—

" _Air Slash!_ " A familiar voice rings out.

It feels like a wall of wind grazes him, and the screech of the Raticate is unbearably loud. A light suddenly shines in his eyes, and he's blinded.

"Jace? Jace? Kid, you okay?"

It can't be Kyle, he thinks dimly _._ He left. His thoughts feel like they're coming from a mile away.

It does indeed turn out to be Kyle. The Ace trainer turns off the flashlight and activates a small lantern hanging off his belt.

"Are you okay? Tell me you're okay!" Kyle demands.

The teen begins shaking him by the shoulders when he still doesn't respond. He doesn't know what to say. It's dark and his arm hurts.

"I-I…" He looks up at the teen with trembling lips.

" _I hate pokemon!_ " He cries.

Kyle doesn't quite know what to do with that, so the teen carries him back to the road before cleaning and bandaging his arm.

They don't say anything for quite a while, and then,

"You idiot, what do you think you were doing out here without a pokemon? Do you know just how serious that was? If someone hadn't seen you go up Route 39, or if my Noctowl wasn't so good at tracking—"

The look on Kyle's face is absolutely furious; he feels lower than dirt.

"You left me. Y-You didn't come back," he whispers, pleading for the teen to understand.

People don't usually come back once they leave.

"I was challenged to a battle, and then challenged again after that. I didn't realize how much time passed," Kyle says through pursed lips.

The Ace trainer lets out a huff before scratching the back of his head rather aggressively. He doesn't say anything more.

"I'm sorry," he says to the ground.

He's sorry for being an idiot; he's sorry for doubting the teen. He can feel the familiar pricks at the back of his eyes even as his lips tremble.

"H-Hey now, you're fine, don't cry," Kyle waves his arms wildly.

"I'm not crying! Men don't cry!" He shouts.

 _Only boys cry_.

The Ace trainer stops his flailing instantly. Hands push his head up, and suddenly he's staring into the dead serious face of his savior.

"That's stupid. Go ahead and cry. Let it all out kid, you'll feel better," Kyle says, solemn expression never changing.

"B-But you just said—"

"I just said that 'cause I panicked," Kyle tells him, letting go and ruffling his hair. "Sometimes you just need to cry. Go on, I won't look."

"P-Promise?" He hiccups.

"Promise."

It's been a long time since he was able to cry without feeling guilty. He doesn't know if he'll ever be able to do it again, so he cries with everything he has.

He kind of loses the ability to stand, but Kyle is right; he does feel better. When his legs still don't work, Kyle piggy backs him all the way to the Pokemon Center.

They're still banned, but Kyle manages to convince the Nurse Joy to let them stay for an hour and to lend a first aid kit. The Ace trainer leaves him sitting against the wall to buy some needed supplies from the store.

This time he knows better. Kyle will come back. He just has to wait.

"Here."

He blinks as a chocolate bar is shoved into his face.

"Is this for me?" He takes the candy hesitantly.

"Yep," Kyle makes sure to pop the end of his word.

The older boy slides down the wall beside him and gets comfortable.

"So, who were you trying to call earlier?" Kyle asks, peeling the wrapper off his own chocolate bar.

"Why?" He asks blankly, still staring at his unwrapped piece of candy.

"Well, Nurse Joy said she'd let you use the phone. I need to know if I should be talking to anybody," Kyle tells him.

"O-Oh. Well," he stumbles, "it's no one or nothing, really. I was just trying to call my brother."

"Your brother?" Kyle raises an eyebrow.

"My older brother, Roger. He's—I kind of got upset at my brother and ran off," he admits.

He shouldn't be saying any of this. Real men don't trouble others with their problems. Roger would say that, but Kyle is different.

"How far away did you run to need to call him? To have to go through Route 39?" The older boy questions shrewdly, eyeing him intently.

"We live a few hours north of Cinderberry," he says, shrinking slightly.

There's no way the other boy could possibly know where that's at. He walked through there and still couldn't find it!

"That far!" Kyle exclaims, choking on a piece of chocolate.

Kyle pounds his chest, and he can only marvel at the fact that the teen truly meant it when he said he's been everywhere.

"You ran all the way here without a pokemon?" Kyle asks incredulously.

"I didn't mean to!" His cheeks glow bright red.

Then he takes in the rest of sentence and feels that usual bit of resentment clawing at his chest.

"And I don't _need_ a pokemon," he says sharply.

Kyle stares at him oddly, and his cheeks remain warm. He knows his face is twisted into an ugly expression; Roger's always pointing it out, but he does not _ever_ want a pokemon.

The scratch on his arm still stings.

"Hoo boy, this is trickier than I thought," Kyle muses out loud.

Kyle lets out a melodramatic sigh.

"Alright, kid. I'm not going to leave you high and dry."

"What do you mean?" He asks, confused.

"Well, clearly your brother isn't very good at being a brother—" Kyle begins.

"HEY! He's a great brother!"

Don't talk about Roger that way, he thinks.

"—clearly not, or you wouldn't hate pokemon," Kyle waves a half-eaten candy bar in his face.

"That's not—"

 _That's not the problem._

"You also ran away from him and you're too upset to call him or go back."

"You're wrong, I—"

"You won't even call him after getting _attacked_. Something is seriously wrong here."

He doesn't have anything to say to that.

"Which is why, out of the goodness of my heart, I shall be your new big brother," Kyle says brightly before shoving the rest of the chocolate bar into his mouth in one go.

"…what?"

Kyle swallows loudly before pointing a finger skyward.

"And now, we shall get you started on your very own pokemon journey!"

" _What_."

"Upsy-daisy!" Kyle grabs him by the good arm.

"W-Wait a moment!" He cries.

The older boy stands suddenly, pulling him up at the same time, and frog marches him out of the Pokemon Center.

"All journeys start with a good night's sleep!" Kyle declares.

The hotel clerk is looking at them with an incredulous look, but that probably has less to do with Kyle's bizarre statement and more with the twelve year old tied up in an Ace Trainer jacket.

He doesn't even know how Kyle managed to tie his arms down while avoiding his injury, but the teen managed it.

"I am not going on a pokemon journey," he hisses.

"It's his first one. He doesn't even have his pokemon yet," Kyle leans towards the clerk, whispering conspiringly.

The clerk hands the teen a key and says uncertainly,

"Good luck with your journey?"

" _No_!" He howls all the way down the hallway Kyle drags him.

Kyle keeps him tied up all the way through morning, breakfast, and even registration. His official ID picture is interesting to say the least.

"Alright," Kyle says, looking through pamphlets, "what kind of starter are we looking at?"

"I. Don't. Want," he says through gritted teeth.

Kyle barely spares him a glance.

"Something cheerful then."

He attempts to kick the older boy, but the trainer manages to dodge each attempt successfully.

"Hm, this is promising," Kyle mutters, "or how about—oh! This is perfect. Oh, but you have to be—"

Kyle gives him an assessing stare, and he can feel the back of his hairs stand on end.

"What?" He asks, dread filling him.

"Did anyone ever tell you, you'd make a pretty girl?"


	2. What You Have To Do For A Pokemon

"And you think you might sign up for the Nurse Joy program?" An older man asks from behind a desk, clasping his hands together.

The man is old and serious-faced; his plain grey suit stands out against the lavish office room.

"Of course she will!" The Ace Trainer chirps.

"I wasn't asking you," the man says, an annoyed look crossing his face. "She must be the one to answer me."

"Well?" He prompts the silent girl.

"A-Ah, yes, I'm very interested," replies the girl timidly.

She wears a giant floppy hat, a plain sundress, and an intricate choker. Her nervousness is one he's seen many times before.

She'll probably fail and go the way of the Lass Trainers, the old man thinks.

Yet…

"Then I am obligated to give you this Happiny. You do understand the level of care and hard work required for it evolve? You'll need to pass the finals of the Johto Nursing program to be given an Oval Stone. It _must_ evolve into a Chansey to be given the title of "Nurse Joy.""

"Y-Yes," the girl answers.

"You may trade it away if you wish, but you cannot receive another one," he tells her gravely.

"Yes."

"Our Happiny are bred to be quite stubborn. If you mistreat it you will likely be _hospitalized,_ " he stresses.

The girl seems taken aback, as they always are, and only a nudge from the irritating Ace Trainer prompts a reaction.

She takes a deep breath and meets his eyes.

"I understand."

The girl's purple eyes seem to narrow in determination, and he feels better about his decision. He grabs a pokeball from a drawer.

"Then I suppose I am prepared to give you this pokemon, miss…?"

"Jane," she tells him accepting the pokeball gingerly.

A fine name for a Lass Trainer, he thinks ruefully.

"Miss Jane, here are some informational pamphlets on the program as well as a list of study guides," he tells her, grabbing a folder of papers.

"I'll hang onto those for her, if you don't mind," the Ace Trainer says brightly, holding his hand out.

He gives the boy a nasty look, but hands him the papers when he doesn't see the girl reach for them.

"Treat it well." He tells the girl, "A pokemon that has the potential to save lives is a huge responsibility."

The girl seems to tremble a bit, but gives him a nod. She's holding onto the pokeball as if it's the world's greatest treasure, and he sees a bright future ahead for trainer and pokemon.

"Thank you," she says softly.

He smiles, knowing that the timid girl before him can only grow into a stronger woman.

Then the boy ruins it by throwing his hands up and hollering like an imbecile.

"Alright, your first pokemon, way to go! Time to celebrate!"

The girl's face twitches as he pushes her out the door, and he feels himself pitying her for having such an unruly brother.

Endless chatter blasts its way into his office until blissful silence takes its place.

Just as he finally thinks himself to be rid of the cretin, the Ace Trainer sticks his head back in the door with a grin and says,

"You know, not allowing guys to be Nurse Joys is kind of sexist, don't you think? Do you think helping pokemon's only for girls? Well, not my problem. Bye!"

It takes his remarkable self-restraint not to throw a paperweight at the boy's head.

...

"Man, we got lucky that your voice hasn't cracked yet," Kyle says grinning.

He doesn't say anything and runs his thumb over the pokeball.

This is his pokeball; his pokemon.

He thinks he's going to be sick.

"And all the recruiters thought you were a girl, one-hundred percent, so we had absolutely no problem getting to the final part!" The Ace Trainer chortles.

He glares at the teen from under the brim of his hat.

"You know if you want to do this long time, I know a few people—"

He throws the pokeball.

 _"Happiny, use Pound."_

...

"You shouldn't be so mean to me," Kyle says with a pout.

He doesn't say anything.

"I mean, do you know how much talking I had to do to get you a licensed Happiny?"

 _My clothes better be in here_ , he thinks irritably as he digs around in his backpack.

"I put myself out for you and then you attack me!" Kyle complains.

He finds his shirt, but—

"Where's my shorts?" He asks, eyes narrowing.

"You don't remember?" Kyle blinks.

"Remember what?" He growls.

"You traded them to that girl for the hat," Kyle informs him.

"What."

"Or maybe it was me who traded them while you were shrieking about getting stripped and being exposed," the Ace Trainer muses.

"You traded away my shorts," he states dully. "I have no pants."

"Well, it's not like you need them. You look surprisingly good in a dress," Kyle grins.

He reaches for the pokeball lying beside his backpack.

Kyle grabs his arm before he can exact justice.

"Nope," the teen says, "you need to introduce yourself before you keep issuing orders. Pokemon don't handle only being called on for battle too well."

The teen thinks about it for a moment.

"Unless they're single-minded and blood-thirsty like Hydreigon," the trainer amends.

He snatches his arm back and glares.

"I am not going to be friends with that _thing_. This was a waste of time, and you know it," he hisses.

The pitying expression on the Ace Trainer's face only makes him angrier.

"I don't need pokemon," he says through gritted teeth. "I just need pants."

"You're wrong," Kyle tells him gently, "you've got it backwards. We humans can give up many things, but pokemon isn't one of them."

He scoffs.

"I've done just fine on my own. I can admit to needing them to survive, but I don't need them as a companion!" He declares crossing his arms.

"Maybe," Kyle says, "but do you like being angry all the time? Because pokemon aren't going to magically go away."

He looks away.

"Well we can work on that later," the Ace Trainer mutters. "We need to get back to Olivine City."

He stiffens.

Oh no, please no…

"I'm staying in Goldenrod City!" He exclaims, darting away.

Kyle grabs him by the back of the dress and slings him over the trainer's shoulder.

"We're going to start this journey off right—in Kanto!" The teen tells his struggling form.

"Which means it's back to Olivine City, and we both know my Noctowl's the fastest way," Kyle continues, picking up Happiny's pokeball and slinging the abandoned backpack across his other shoulder.

"Cheer up! I'll buy you an awesome pair of shorts when we get there," the Ace Trainer says brightly.

"I'm going to hurl on you," he threatens, still thrashing against the hold on him.

"We'll be going too fast. It'll just stay in your mouth," Kyle responds knowingly.

He doesn't stop trying to escape when the Noctowl appears in a beam of light. He doesn't even stop when the familiar glow of Fly encompasses them both.

 _I'm going to die_ , he thinks tearfully.

They're picked up in an invisible whirlwind and flung away.

Olivine City is still a trip even with Fly in effect; they get to travel at high speeds for what feels like a very long time.

It's lucky for Kyle that they're going too fast to even scream.

 _I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill him._

Very lucky.


	3. Sailing the SS Aqua

He's traveled from Kanto to Alola. He's gained all eight badges in Johto, a few badges from other regions, and has trained his pokemon to their fullest potential. He knows the Elite Four rather well, even if he can't beat them.

Life can't possibly throw him any more surprises, was his arrogant thought.

He watches a boy hover over a postal drop box, trying and failing to mail a letter. The kid is struggling to push an envelope into the slot. He keeps freaking out and yanking the letter back at the last minute.

Life showed him, he thinks with a wry smile. He never thought he'd gain such a problematic little brother.

Almost 5 o'clock, he notices. The ship to Vermilion will be leaving soon.

He's given Jace enough time to drag things out—time to step in.

He silently pads over to the kid and arranges his face into exaggerated exasperation.

"You still haven't mailed that?" He asks, incredulous.

He yanks the letter out of the boy's hands and dances out of the way when the kid grabs for the letter.

"Give it back," the boy demands.

"So you can stare at it some more?" He tsks, holding the envelope out of reach.

"I'm going to mail it!" The kid hisses, jumping for the letter.

It's kind of amusing, he thinks. He resists the urge to make Jace dance for the prize.

Instead, he twirls around the boy and shoves the envelope into the slot faster than the boy can react.

"Why?" The kid asks, face falling once he realizes it's gone.

"Because our boat's leaving and you were taking too long," he replies cheerfully.

The kid pales dramatically, and while the whole thing is kind of hilarious, it's time to get to the docks.

"You were going to mail that anyways," he reminds the boy. "You need to tell dear, big brother what happened to you before heading to Kanto."

"You mean that you're kidnapping me?" Jace asks dully.

"Well, yeah, but we're not telling him that," he says, pushing the boy out the post office door.

"I know. You stood over my shoulder the whole time I wrote it," the kid mutters.

"I had to make you re-write it, like, five times," he recalls. "I can't believe you were comparing me to a Drifloon and then a Loudred!

"Gee, I wonder why."

...

Olivine City disappears into the distance; it's quite a view from the _S.S. Aqua_.

He's never known anything but traveling. The sight doesn't mean much to him.

The kid though…

Jace presses his face into the window, fogging it up with his breath.

Leaving home behind for the first time is a serious and melancholy feeling.

Or so he's been told.

He lets the kid mope for a few more moments before he starts singing "Going on a Journey" to break the mood.

" _So great, having pokemon by my side,"_ he croons.

(The face the kid makes in the reflection is hilarious.)

He talks Jace into walking around with him; he even manages to convince the kid to let his Happiny out.

The kid still acts like the small adorably pink, baby pokemon is really a Sharpedo in disguise, but he's at least willing to be within a foot next to it.

It's progress, he thinks.

They make their way down the ship, chatting with the other passengers, Happiny cheerfully bouncing behind them.

He doesn't plan on battling; Jace is too inexperienced, and his own pokemon would probably go overboard and sink the ship.

(Snorlax and cruise liners do not go together; he shivers in remembrance.)

"So I see there's another real trainer on board," an arrogant voice calls out.

Turning around, he sees a trainer with the same jacket as him; the other trainer stands haughty with a smirk on his face.

"I'm not in the mood for battle," he explains shortly.

This only makes the other trainer's smirk widen.

"A real trainer is ready for battle anytime, anywhere. That your jacket?" The Ace Trainer taunts.

"Oh?" He says narrowing his eyes, "did you want to lose that badly?"

"I'm not the one who's going to lose, faker," sneers the trainer.

He can't help the smile that grows onto his face.

Jace seems to pick on the tension and scuttles out of the way. The kid hesitates for a moment before going back for his Happiny, holding it like a bomb.

Kid's learning to be responsible, he thinks approvingly.

He eyes up his opponent, almost laughing at what he sees.

The jacket is too new and shiny, the trainer's right pocket seems to bulge slightly, and his opponent doesn't look like he's preparing to focus.

Standing in front of him is an Ace Trainer who's just received his jacket, thinks he's hot stuff, wants to prove it, and has absolutely no clue what he's getting into.

Doubtlessly, this trainer has been on a power trip and has accumulated quite a bit of cash. So, he gets to crush the greenhorn and get some money out of it too.

Oh this is going to be _fun_.

"I'll go first," he says brightly. "Arcanine try not to burn this one, okay?"

Jace ends up getting to see exactly what happens when people go above their level.

He makes it as educational for his little brother as possible.

("See that? That's a rookie mistake," he points out with a grin. "This is what you should do instead.")

He doesn't let the battle end until everyone learns something new.

Even the curious bystanders are taking notes; he overhears one of them say there's an ice cream vendor around the corner, and he decides to bring things to a close.

He makes a signal with his hand, and his Noctowl uses Air Slash to faint the already beaten-down Machoke.

He uses his winnings to buy ice cream for Jace and himself. They eat in front of the shaken and quiet Ace Trainer who is cradling his pokeballs in despair.

He cheerfully explains type differences to a wary Jace, who doesn't realize his Happiny is leaping up to take bites out of his treat when he's not looking.

They pretend the battle never happened.

(Not all gloating is vocal.)

...

He wakes up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom; he activates a small lantern to see.

Something in the glow of the light catches his attention.

Well, how about that, he thinks with a quiet snort.

Jace is passed out in the other bed, Happiny curled up on his chest.

One day ago, the kid wouldn't even let the pokemon out of the pokeball.

He takes great care not to disturb the two while he takes care of his business.

Jace still hates pokemon (and that's just _wrong_ ), but his heart isn't completely gone. The kid can still learn to open up, to heal.

He's going to see the kid grow to great heights or die trying.

(He doesn't realize how scary it is to mean these words)

The rest of the trip is uneventful, boring even.

He doesn't do well with sitting in one place for too long, and it's a relief to finally make it to Vermilion City.

The city is too bland for his taste, but it has some of the cleanest water he's ever seen.

They depart the _S.S. Aqua_ for the local Pokemon Center only to see a small castle looming over the town.

Huh, that's new, he thinks.

"Cool," Jace breathes, "let's go check it out!"

He can practically feel the kid's excitement, and even he admits he's curious.

After all, exploring new places is just part of the journey.

He shrugs.

"Why not?"


	4. Went For A Walk To Kanto, Bye

Moving to Johto from Unova has been one giant headache, but he'd been so excited to get his own farm.

He can finally work with more than just Skitty and Glameow house pets; he can finally put his training to actual use!

His family relies on him to eat, and now that he has more room than a cramped house, he can finally earn a decent wage and buy more than discounted food.

Only now that he's finally able to work and enjoy it, his little brother is missing.

And it's all his fault.

If he hadn't lost his temper, if he'd just kept silent…

He's already called the school, but Jace never showed up.

His brother probably ran away again; his backpack is missing. Jace is probably holed up in a nearby city, waiting for his older brother to come get him.

Except this time he can't leave to drag the boy back.

He wants nothing more than to chase down his brother, but he has other responsibilities now. He has a whole farm filled with pokemon and a wayward mother that needs to be cared for.

He's aware his best isn't good enough—that Jace deserves a father, not an over-worked brother.

It's frustrating, but all he can do is wait and see if Jace comes home.

He's brushing the Ponyta out in the field when a postal worker on a gigantic Pidgeotto lands near the house.

"You Roger of Quiet Scene Farm?" The postal worker asks when he approaches.

"Yes," he replies, eyebrows furrowing.

"Letter for you from 'Jace.' " She tells him, pulling a letter out from her messenger bag.

He accepts the envelope with trembling hands. He doesn't hesitate and rips it open. He never notices the postal worker leave.

 _Hey Roger,_

 _First of all, I'm okay._

"Oh, thank the gods," he breathes.

 _I was trying to get to the school in Cinderberry, honest, and made it to Olivine City instead._

 _Pretty crazy, huh?_

 _Some things happened, and I met some new people. I met a Noctowl who might be pretty cool too._

 _Pokemon are still the worst, though._

 _They made me realize I've been depending on you this whole time, and I need to learn things that a barely existing school can't teach me._

 _I also realized I'm still pretty mad at you._

 _Not that you deserve it, but it's a feeling I can't shake for some reason._

 _I've decided I'm going to go find you a great pokemon for the farm to make up for it. Maybe I'll find out why I'm the way I am too._

 _I'm sorry for leaving without saying anything, but I'm not sorry for leaving._

 _I'll keep sending you updates through the mail, but they might be a bit sporadic since they'll be coming from Kanto._

"K-Kanto?" He sputters.

 _Love,_

 _Jace_

 _P.S. I'm currently traveling with an Ace Trainer who's been everywhere and knows everything. He's the one with the cool Noctowl._

 _P.P.S. Did you know Nurse Joys have it rough? Seriously, they have to know how to treat every single pokemon and even people! And there are all these procedures!_

 _P.P.P.S. Did I mention I have a pokemon? It's a Happiny. It's very pink._

He can only stare at the paper in disbelief.

Jace has a pokemon? He's going to Kanto? He has a pokemon? It's pink?

He turns his attention to the only thing he can understand.

"I don't know who you are Mr. Ace Trainer, but if you let _anything_ happen to my brother!"

...

"Achoo!"

Kyle's sneeze reverberates around them, bouncing off stone walls.

"Did you want your jacket back?" He asks in concern.

"Nah," the Ace Trainer says sniffling, "it's just the dust."

For such a sunny day, the castle was unexpectedly cold. It was as if someone had cranked up the air conditioning onto the highest setting.

It was also suspiciously empty for being such an eye catcher.

"We'll get you a wardrobe update when we get to Celadon. They have the coolest jackets—after mine of course," Kyle tells him.

He rolls his eyes.

"No dresses," he says firmly.

"Aw, but you looked so cute—"

"Happiny, _Pound_."

Happiny leaps from its pokeball, giggling and eager to land a hit. The Ace Trainer dances out of the way, arms flailing.

"You know," Kyle tells him still dodging a determined Happiny, "out of the two of us, it's me who should hate pokemon."

He scowls and crosses his arms.

"If you'd just _stop_ saying stupid stuff…" He huffs.

"But you make it too easy—ah!"

Happiny lets out a happy cry as it finally lands a hit, and Kyle crashes to the ground dramatically. The pokemon examines the fallen trainer curiously.

"You got me," the Ace Trainer tells it gravely.

Happiny playfully bops his nose and they both break into giggles.

It's not cute, he tells himself. He tries to stop the smile forming on his own face.

"Let's just find out what's up with this place," he grunts, turning away.

He freezes when he feels something heavy land on his shoulder.

"You should keep your pokemon close to you," Kyle says gleefully.

Happiny chirps at him, and it sounds way too close.

He glances left, and all he sees is pink.

Yep, way too close, he thinks.

"Onward!" Kyle shouts, clapping his non-occupied shoulder.

The Ace Trainer pushes him down the dimly-lit hallway, and all he can think is—

 _How is this my life?_


	5. Injuries Are Serious Business

_Dear Roger,_

 _I'm okay! There's no need to come get me!_

 _The Kangaskhan didn't even get near me._

 _I'm fine and we finally made it to Cerulean City without anything else happening._

 _It just seemed strange to see a Kangaskhan all by itself. It's not even supposed to be here!_

 _I'll be more careful from now on. It's not like I meant to go near its baby._

 _Kyle got hurt protecting me though. He said he's all better now, but I think he's lying._

 _What should I do?_

Tapping the pencil on the sheet of paper, he stares at the last line he wrote.

He knows that there's no way Roger can respond to his question, but…

He sighs in aggravation and crumples the paper.

Happiny chirps in concern beside him.

"I think Kyle's still hurt, but I can't convince him to get it looked at," he tells it gloomily.

He's used to being someone's problem, but he's never felt so bad about it before.

The two of them stare down at the hotel carpet dejectedly.

Happiny suddenly brightens. It digs around in its pouch before pulling out a small, folded pamphlet. The pokemon hands it to him, cooing.

"Become a Nurse Joy today," he reads in incredulity.

He looks down at the Happiny.

"You've been holding onto this for how long?" He asks.

The Happiny beams back up at him.

"I still don't know what you're trying to tell me. Kyle refuses to even see a Nurse Joy, and all this says is to become one—oh," he realizes.

"You, uh, wouldn't happen to know where I should start?" He asks hesitantly.

Happiny waves its arm in a positive before bouncing towards the door, chirping all the way.

He follows unsure but determined.

...

"Hey, I'm back and I've got dinn—" Kyle cuts himself off suddenly, still standing halfway outside.

"Welcome back," he says arms crossed.

Happiny lets out its own somewhat threatening coo.

The Ace Trainer slowly closes the door behind him and drops the containers of food onto the floor.

"Should I be running away?" Kyle says eyeing the two of them.

"Not if you know what's good for you," he tells him.

Happiny backs him up with a chirp.

Kyle looks between them in bewilderment before noticing a new bag sitting on the bed.

"You bought a professional medical kit?" He asks in confusion.

"Along with several books," he informs the Ace Trainer, "all from our savings."

"You mean _my_ savings," Kyle says dryly. "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to use other people's money to buy yourself things?"

"Oh no," he says brightly, "this isn't for me. It's for you."

"What do you mean?" Kyles asks in alarm, backing up.

"Happiny, Charm then Sweet Kiss," he barks.

The pink pokemon bolts towards the Ace Trainer who rushes for the door. Kyle isn't fast enough, and a determined Happiny lands both moves on the trainer.

Kyle crashes into the door face-first with a groan.

"Alright," he grabs the groggy teen, "get the tape, and I'll get his shirt off."

He marches the Ace Trainer towards the bed while Happiny digs into the medical bag with a flourish.

His main worry is that Kyle has been internally bleeding all this time, which his textbooks keep telling him is serious. It's also possible that the teen has cracked ribs, which is less serious but still worrying.

Getting punched in the stomach by a Kangaskhan will do that to a person, apparently.

What if it is internal bleeding? Does he knock out Kyle and get a real doctor? What about—

His thoughts get cut off when Kyle opens his mouth.

"Aren't you too young for this? I know I'm good-looking, but you should wait 'til your sixteen, at least. And make sure you buy me dinner instead of the other way around," the Ace Trainer says, slurring slightly.

He can feel his eye twitch.

"Seriously, you can even wear one of those Nurse Joy dresses too. Look like the real thing."

He knows Kyle's been affected, as the trainer's eyes are glazed over, but he also knows Kyle is being obtuse on purpose.

"Happiny, I think our patient needs a little understanding," he says throwing the trainer onto the bed, " _Pound_."

"That's what she said," Kyle manages to choke out before being rendered unconscious.


	6. Careers Are Best Chosen In Secret

_Hey Roger,_

 _As always, I'm doing fine._

 _I've decided to write this letter instead of call. Nostalgic, isn't it?_

 _I'm happy to hear you like the shiny Ponyta. How's it adjusting?_

 _I know it took a long time, but I told you I'd get you an awesome pokemon for the farm!_

 _I can't believe it took me three years to hunt that thing down, and Kyle didn't help complaining the whole time._

 _Speaking of Kyle_

"Whatcha doing?" Kyle asks, leaning on his shoulder.

"I'm writing a letter to Roger," he replies, tapping the paper with the tip of his pencil.

Kyle makes a face as he always does when his older brother is mentioned.

(The world didn't end when the two met, but a piece of Johto did suspiciously burn down that very day.)

"I thought you were done with that," Kyle complains.

"It helps me get my thoughts together! Besides, everyone loves letters," he replies crossly.

"You just don't want to tell him what you're doing to his face," the Ace Trainer snorts.

He bites his tongue because the guy's not wrong. He'd love to just phone his older brother up and tell him everything he's been planning since he was thirteen.

Except Roger is still stuck on the idea of what it means to be a man.

His brother would absolutely hate his career choice. His biggest fear is that Roger might never talk to him again.

Matter of fact, he might even blame it on a certain Ace Trainer…

"Okay, no," Kyle interrupts, "I see your evil face, and it's not happening."

"What's not happening?" He asks innocently.

"It's just a feeling, but do _not_ put the blame on me for _your_ choice," Kyle says leaning all his weight into his shoulder.

"Well, it is your fault," He says grunting under the force.

"Oh yeah, like I told you to go out and break social norms," Kyle scoffs.

"You planted the idea in my head! 'Hey Jace, you're getting good at patching up both me and the pokemon, why don't you do it long term.' " He quotes in a deeper, albeit sillier voice.

"I didn't mean as a Nurse Joy," Kyle says grinning.

"You totally did," he accuses, wriggling out from under the Ace Trainer.

"Maybe," Kyle finally admits.

"Yeah," he says going back to the paper, "I know you did. Now shoo, I have a complicated letter full of my tears to write."

"Just tell him you _really_ admired the Nurse Joy uniform—"

He throws Happiny's pokeball over his shoulder.

He tunes the following commotion out with long-standing practice.

 _Speaking of Kyle, I know you don't like him very much, but he's helped me grow into the person I am._

 _And he's going to help me keep growing into the person I want to be too._

 _That person is someone who helps others, who heals both people and pokemon. A person who works tirelessly to ensure battling is fun and not tear-filled._

 _I'm speaking of becoming Johto's first male Nurse Joy._

 _Okay, okay, take a deep breath. Just hear me out, okay?_

 _I know that the Nurse Joy program only accepts females with a Happiny, but that's where Kyle comes in._

 _You know, Kyle? The guy who could probably make Champion if he wasn't so sure he couldn't? The one who has an endless amount of contacts and, I suspect, amount of blackmail?_

 _After I told him what I wanted to do, he sat down with the director one day and bam! I got in._

 _So, I guess what I'm telling you is I'm going off to Nursing school, and I hope you'll support me._

 _It's been a long time coming, but I finally understand what you see when you look at pokemon._

 _I want to help them. I want to see excited trainers with all kinds of pokemon pass by my desk every day!_

 _You can't stop me, so I hope you'll eventually understand that this is how I want to live my life._

 _Love,_

 _Jace_

 _P.S. If I pass, Happiny becomes a Chansey! How cool is that?_

 _P.P.S. I no longer have a girlfriend, Beth was a waste of time._

 _P.P.P.S. Kyle's coming with me. Says he's going to be my coach, bodyguard, and morale booster. He got permission to be my roommate, but he plans to travel. He'll probably leave once I've settled in, and come back when I'm ready to quit. He's weird like that._


	7. It's Mr To You

_"And you finished in just four years! What dedication! Well, we've run out of time. Do you have anything else you'd like to share before we go?"_

 _"Just that I'd like to thank Kyle and Roger, the two most important people in my life, for their support."_

 _"Well there you have it! That wraps up today's interview with Johto's very own first male Nurse Joy!"_

...

"Phew, glad that's over with," he mutters to the pokemon by his side.

Chansey pats him on the arm, chirping brightly.

"Yeah, we did do good," he says smiling.

He breathes in the crisp air outside of the television studio and enjoys a moment of peace.

It's shattered by the ringing of his Xtransceiver.

He doesn't even need to look down to know who's calling—only one person has such a brazen ringtone.

"Kyle."

"Jace!"

The cheerful face of his best friend greets him.

"Saw you on tv, congrats Mr. Nurse Joy!"

He smiles.

"Thanks."

"Congrats, Chansey!"

Chansey bounces beside him with a chirp.

"So, now that you've got your title, do you know where you're heading on from here?" Kyle asks.

This is going to blow his mind, he thinks.

"There's a Pokemon Center wanting to hire me in Olivine City," he tells him.

Kyle's gaping face is just as amusing as he thought it'd be.

"You're _kidding_."

"Nope. They're getting my work space set up now," he tells him.

"Wow, just, wow. Full circle, huh?" Kyle says amazed.

"That's just how things turn out. They're going to ease me into the position, but in a few weeks I'll be running around like any other Nurse Joy."

He sees Kyle's mouth opening and decides to cut him off.

"And I get to wear _pants_ while doing so," he stresses.

"You don't know what I was going to say," Kyle pouts.

He rolls his eyes.

"I totally know what you were going to say. For some odd reason it always comes back to dresses with you."

It was getting to be quite irritating actually.

"I can't help it if it suits you," Kyle says grinning, "and maybe if you didn't have a skirt or two hanging in your closet I wouldn't be so curious about it!"

He can feel himself going bright red.

"S-Shut up!" He stutters. "Those were for disguises, and you know it!"

Unfortunately, he had never grown into the masculine look he had hoped for. It had been unexpectedly helpful in hiding from the overwhelming face of the public though.

"Yeah, yeah, that doesn't stop me from getting asked about my "young girlfriend" from my parents," Kyle says still grinning.

He winces and closes his eyes in remembrance. That had been one of the most humiliating moments of his life.

To think, the chances of walking into Kyle's ever traveling parents while in disguise was so low, and yet…

"That never happened," he growls.

"If you say so," Kyle chortles.

"Seriously, unless you have something else to say, I'm hanging up," he threatens.

"I've been saving up for a while now, and well, now that I know where you're going, I'm going to get us a place either in or near Olivine," Kyle informs him.

He blinks in shock.

"You don't have to do that!"

"I've already got a list of places to look at in all the major cities in Johto," Kyle states with a smirk.

"Huh?" He asks gobsmacked.

"It might not be anything big," the Ace Trainer warns, "but it'll have enough room for you to live comfortably and be a place to crash at for me."

He's still trying to process this.

"Oh, and it's going to be a house, by the way," Kyle absently tacks on.

He'd been looking at apartments this whole time, but to get a house of his very own!

"You—" His words die on his lips.

He really doesn't know what to say.

"You can repay me in home-cooked meals whenever I visit," Kyle says cheerfully.

"It's not visiting," He says without thinking.

"Come again?"

He hadn't meant to say that. His face turns bright red again.

"If it's your house, it's not visiting," he struggles to put into words. "It's 'whenever I get home.' I'll cook you something whenever you get home."

There's a long moment of silence, and he thinks his face is getting redder. Chansey is absentmindedly examining some flowers near the road, like the good pokemon it is.

"Aw," Kyle eventually says, "that's so adorable!"

He makes a face and is resolutely not looking at the video screen.

"Well, guess I should get a move on, on getting _our_ house. I'll leave you to your embarrassment!" Kyle says brightly.

He's about to end the call when—

"Oh, and one more thing," Kyle tells him, "I told your brother we're getting married."

Everything comes to a halt; even nature itself, he swears.

"What," he asks flatly.

"He wanted to have you return to his house, so I told him that. Just thought you should know," Kyle grins wide.

" _Why?_ " He wants to know.

"Because it was funny," Kyle says.

The screen goes blank and he's left looking at it in disbelief.

Surely Roger didn't take Kyle seriously. His older brother had to have known Kyle was just messing with him!

He recalls his many failed girlfriends, never parting from Kyle except for one stressful year, and all the cross-dressing incidents.

His brother is probably working himself into a rage at this very moment, he thinks despairingly.

He lets out a pain-filled groan, and Chansey pokes him in concern.

"Why does he always do this?" He asks the worried pokemon.

Chansey makes a motion, and he nods his understanding.

"You're completely right. It's Stockholm syndrome because I couldn't possibly be friends with someone so insane."

Chansey places flowers on its head, and it gives him an idea.

"You know, it wouldn't be that hard to get invitations out to his parents," he says slowly, "or to tell them, as his young beautiful, tearful girlfriend, about being dumped because it was _Kyle_ who wanted to wear the dress."

He smiles.


	8. Alola from Alola

His days at the Pokemon Center are usually busy. Sometimes it's completely chaotic, sometimes not. Boring days are rare, and he truly does love his job.

It has the weird side effect of wanting to murder people though. They definitely don't mention that part during the training program.

"Chansey, get a heavier rope, it seems we have a troublemaker."

He scowls as a Jigglypuff manages to keep out of reach; the pokemon continues to make faces at him as it floats away.

His bad mood is made worse when he hears a snicker coming from the other side of the room. There's a waiting room full of trainers that seem to find the situation entertaining, and he has to fight down to urge to start throwing things.

Chansey throws a thicker cord to him, as the Jigglypuff broke the last one, and he pops it towards the pokemon threateningly. He ignores the ringing of his Xtransceiver and chases after the small pokemon floating away from him.

"Stay still already," he says through gritted teeth.

After a struggle, he manages to wrap the cord around the pokemon's foot and ties it to a paperweight on his desk. He picks up the still ringing device.

"What," he bites out.

"Alola!" Kyle sings back.

"Why?" He asks the world briefly before letting out a sigh. "How do you know about the reassignment?"

"I know everything," Kyle grins from their living room couch.

"Did you hack my file or did you bribe my boss again?" He questions with a frown.

"Neither," the other replies, "I saw the folder on the table."

"Oh," he blinks, "that's such a mundane way to find out. Usually everything's over the top with you."

"Sorry to disappoint," Kyle says dryly, "but I can't be a super spy all the time."

"That's not—look, I'm busy. We can talk about this when I get home," he says, well aware the conversation isn't exactly private.

"I'll be here," the trainer promises, "just wanted to let you know that I'm going ahead and getting things packed."

"Don't pack everything, it's only for a year," he warns.

"Got it, so what's up with the Jigglypuff?" Kyle wants to know.

"Some idiot," he begins with vehemence, "decided to teach his Jigglypuff Fly."

"It didn't work." He stresses, " _It did not work_."

...

He's being given a temporary position at one of the Pokemon Centers in Alola, specifically Melemele Island. Supposedly there's an influx of Kanto and Johto pokemon that the local centers want him to help deal with, but he suspects they just want to use him as a male role model for the local punks.

It's not the first time he's been sent off for PR, and it won't be the last time.

Still, he sees it as a chance to improve his own skills by working with Alolan pokemon and maybe making friends with some nice locals.

 _And maybe_ , he thinks, his co-workers will miss him when he's gone, perhaps the blonde-haired co-worker that likes to paint little hearts on her nails.

A goofy smile takes over his face at the thought only to fall at the sight of a deliveryman approaching his desk with an elaborate bouquet.

He pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs.

"You do that on purpose," he accuses the moment he gets home.

"Do what?" Kyle asks airily from the kitchen table.

"The thing!"

"Thing?"

"You know, the—argh!" He throws his hands up.

"Everyone thinks we're together, so every time I ask Lacey out, it looks like I'm trying to cheat on you," his eye twitches.

"And just when I have her convinced, you walk through with flowers or candy and leave them on my desk! And the worst part—the _worst_ part is that they're _not for me_."

"Well someone has to give those poor pokemon something to be cheerful about," the Ace trainer tells him.

"There was only a Poochyena with a slightly singed tail that one day," he huffs.

"How would you feel being abandoned after some idiot set your tail on fire?" Kyle shoots back.

"It was already recovered! We were just waiting on its trainer to come back!" He throws his hands up again.

"Abandoned by his trainer, atrocious," Kyle scorns mockingly.

"Its trainer felt so bad, she ran off to grab five boxes of pokemon treats. And a grooming kit. And a new pillow," he reminds the other man.

He turns on the kettle already on the stove and grabs two mugs hanging near the stove, one pink and one white with "That's Mr. Joy" written on it.

"I'm leaving in about a week—,"

"We're," Kyle interjects.

" _We're_ leaving in about a week, and we'll be renting out a room out of someone's house. So we can't exactly take everything," he says rooting through the cabinets for Chansey's special tea.

"We're going to have to put some of the stuff in storage and lock up the rest. I don't think anyone will give us trouble, but Roger's agreed to stop by every couple of days," he continues, looking for his own brand of tea.

"We're also going to need—"

"Sunglasses," Kyle nods, "it's pretty important and maybe some new shorts."

"I'm trying to have a serious conversation here," he says irritably.

"As am I," the Ace trainer says, "Alola gets _hot_. I have to keep wearing this jacket too! Maybe shorts will keep the heat stroke at bay? Oh, and you can wear one of those grass skirts—"

"You know what? Chansey misses you, have a hug," he throws the pokeball at the other's face.

Kyle hits the floor with a thud and barely dodges the summoned pokemon. The Ace trainer doesn't manage to get out of the ensuing cuddle from a delighted Chansey.

He only calls the pokemon off when the kettle starts whistling.

...

They have to board three different ships to get to Alola, and they land on the sunny island a few days later.

They only have two suitcases each, but they both agreed that if they need anything else they could buy it later.

Kyle did in fact decide to undergo an outfit change—the other man wears his official jacket like a cape over a tank top. He also wears lighter pants, and shoes that are a bizarre mix between boots and sandals.

Despite the Ace trainer's best efforts, he only brings his official uniform and some plain t-shirts and shorts.

...

Kyle dashes off the moment the ship docks. Melemele Island has a lot to see on its main street, but the Ace trainer seems unusually excited. The other man keeps whipping his head around as if looking for something.

He doesn't understand how the other guy can run around dressed in black while carrying two heavy suitcases in this heat.

"Ah, man," Kyle exclaims with a hand shading his eyes, "this is bringing back the memories!"

He flicks a gaze over at the trainer warily.

"Memories?" He questions reluctantly.

He's found that anytime Kyle decides to volunteer information about himself, it's solely to make everyone around him uncomfortable.

 _("Man, this reminds me of—hey, did I ever tell you about my pseudo family growing up?"_

 _He hesitates for a moment._

 _"No."_

 _"Ask me, ask me!"_

 _With dread, he does so._

 _"I hated them so much I burnt their house to the ground! Couldn't be forced to stay with them if they had no house, right?" Kyle chortles.)_

"Yeah, this was the first placed I lived at that wasn't a hotel or a tent!"

There are a lot of mines in that sentence, so he chooses the safest bet.

"You used to live here?"

"Yep, right here somewhere! Used to go to the beach and play in the sand with my Growlithe everyday. That Growlithe was a moat-building _machine_. Hated the water though, made filling the moat an epic struggle."

"It's not your Arcanine, is it?" He closes his eyes and waits for it.

"Nope! Parents threw away the frivolous stuff when we moved to Unova. Sadly, Growlithe wasn't a necessity."

Knew it, he thinks with a sigh.

"Got a Purrloin next. It was a _demon_ and I enjoyed losing that one very much. Threw it out with the trash," Kyle says to rile him up.

It works.

"Hey now, you can't just treat pokemon like they're objects!" He starts his familiar rant.

Kyle just picks up his suitcases and strolls away with a grin.


	9. Somebody You Used to Know

Their rented room turns out to be much nicer than was thought. For one, it has its own door to the outside which turns out to be a good thing.

(The family they meet are wonderful people, but the teenage daughter won't stop staring at the two of them and smiling. It's creepy.)

It's also bigger than was expected; they have space for two small beds. Chansey and Noctowl, though they won't be able to move much, will have no problems being outside their pokeballs.

A small bathroom's attached, and there's a mini refrigerator with a microwave.

Things are looking up, he thinks, and then he accidentally steps on Kyle's photo that belongs to the Ace trainer's secret shrine they both pretend doesn't exist. The glass cover cracks, and he lets out a swear.

He reevaluates how much room is actually needed to accommodate two people before rushing out to buy a new picture frame.

Kyle's off somewhere for the day, most likely scamming confident trainers out of their money, and probably won't be back until dark. He decides to take a look at the shops before heading home once he acquires a replacement.

The salon catches his eye when a girl with shiny pink hair and rather unusual clothing barges out.

"I ain't got time for no split ends!" the girl screeches, stomping away.

He blinks and looks at his Xtransceiver. Plenty of time until it gets dark, he muses. With an insatiable curiosity gained in self-defense from traumatic experience, he strides over to the innocent-looking salon.

The hairdresser that greets him also has pink hair. Dyes are something of a specialty, she tells him. He asks about the girl from earlier and gets a crash course on Team Skull.

Talking about Team Skull eventually leads to discussing his recent arrival to the region, his new job, and other similar topics. It's a slow day for her, and he doesn't have anywhere to be; they chat all the way to closing time.

Her name's Myna. She's blunt, funny, and somewhat sweet.

She's probably a decade older than him, but that doesn't make her any less cute. He asks if she's too tired for coffee, and she says she'd love some.

He practically dances back to his temporary abode afterwards. He manages to get Kyle's broken frame replaced minutes before the Ace trainer kicks open the door.

Two weeks later, and a few evenings of coffee dates, he figures it's better to let Kyle meet her before fate decides to step in. Too many times he's tried hiding his potential girlfriends only to have it blow up spectacularly.

He decides to cross his fingers and introduce the two on his next day off.

...

"Myna, huh? Sounds familiar in a _bad_ way," Kyle muses.

"Myna's a good person! You probably met someone else," he denies.

"Doubt it."

"She's really nice," he argues, opening the door. "You'll see."

Kyle makes a disbelieving sound.

"Welcome to—" Myna cuts off.

Her mouth hangs open as her gaze rests over his shoulder. In response, Kyle tilts his head thoughtfully.

"Don't I know you?" The Ace trainer asks.

Myna makes an enraged noise. Before he knows it, he's being shoved to the floor, and a pair of scissors sails overhead.

"Yep," Kyle says wryly, "definitely know you."

"You have some nerve," Myna seethes.

Her hand is reaching for a pokeball, and he knows this is about to get ugly fast. He resolutely does not start crying at the unfairness of it all.

"Kyle, what did you _do_?" He asks despairingly.

"It's not so much what I did, than what I didn't do," the Ace trainer tells him.

"You traitor!" Myna cries, jumping over the counter. "It was a commitment! You ran out on me!"

He whips his head towards the man he thought he knew.

"You left her at the altar?" He gapes.

There are two other customers who gasp dramatically.

Myna holds out a pokeball challengingly, and she appears to be in pain. He looks over at Kyle and narrows his eyes.

"The irony of everyone thinking I'm the bad guy," Kyle sighs to himself.

"You don't know the meaning of loyalty," Myna sneers.

His teeth clench, and he feels his hand twitch to his own pokeball. Here he is trying his best and then this guy!

"So, you did leave her?" He questions sharply.

"Look," Kyle huffs, scratching his head irritably, "it's not like that. It's—"

He cuts himself off as he looks warily at the two customers listening intently.

"She's a member of Team Rocket," the Ace trainer says lowly.

He blinks in shock.

"Oh, don't give me that. You were too!" Myna hisses, stomping her foot.

He opens his mouth and only a noise resembling a question comes out.

"Nope, not officially anyways. Never got my hat," Kyle refutes.

"You were a member in all but name," Myna spits.

"I seem to recall you saying something along the lines of, 'you're never going to be one of us, you stupid brat' but that may just be bad memory," the Ace trainer states dryly.

"You know I never meant it—" Myna begins.

"Just like how you guys used to gang up on me with your Zubats, but you 'never meant it?' " Kyle spits.

"You _literally_ asked for it!" Myna throws her arms up.

"Alright, enough!" He shouts.

He's confused and more than a little miffed that Kyle has, yet again, ruined his chance with a girl he liked.

"What is going on and should it concern me?" He asks, Chansey's pokeball rolling dangerously in his palm.

The Ace trainer is scrubbing a hand through his hair irritably, and the apparently criminal hairdresser is scowling at the wall behind him.

"Look," Kyle begins tersely, "it's in the past, and—"

"Oh, sure, now that the Boss can't scare you—" Myna interrupts snidely.

"Let me finish speaking!" Kyle orders. "I'm not ten anymore. You can't act like we never grew up!"

Myna snaps her teeth together, visibly angry.

"Now, Jace," Kyle huffs, "what happened was that I was a dumb little kid who thought he had it all figured out. At that age, I was angry, and the only thing I understood was that being good got you nowhere."

The Ace trainer pauses.

"I was living in Kanto at the time, and Team Rocket was getting into full swing. No matter which town my parents moved me to, they were _there._ Every single city had guys running around in black after dark."

"I tried to join up, and got beat up a lot," the man continues with a nostalgic expression, "but it always came down to 'you're too young.' Gangsters with morals, who knew?"

"I learned things though," Kyle looks Myna straight in the eyes, "not just your typical thuggery, but things said without thought. Confidential information just lying out in the open. Unguarded computers with weak passwords."

Myna hisses through her teeth.

"The only thing that stopped me from getting in over my head was my reasonable fear of Giovanni," the Ace trainer tells him. "Eventually though, my parents forced me to go to Hoenn, so it's not like I left on purpose."

"You could have stayed with us! We would have sheltered you," the woman shouts desperately.

"I know you would have, but I had already started changing," Kyle says gently. "Met this Growlithe with the saddest eyes behind the prize counter, you know?"

Myna looks away, and he can't stop the stab of sympathy. He knows exactly how it feels to see people you love walk away from you.

"We went down different paths, it's just how it is," Kyle says softly.

There's an awkward silence as the woman plays with her pokeball, not looking at anyone.

"Yeah, well, never thought I'd go from thug to thug's hairdresser," Myna gripes.

"And I'm a professional pokemon trainer that can buy a house in every region!" Kyle chirps.

"Now I want to kill you for another reason," Myna says ominously.

"So how about it? Friends? Friends with my friends?" Kyle grabs him by the shoulder, forcing him into a side-hug.

He slides on the familiar put-upon expression that comes with being best friends with a crazy man, and he watches Myna's give in to the inevitable.

"Ugh, fine. I'll give you my number, but if you even think about calling me at midnight!" She threatens.

"Don't worry, friends don't purposely irritate friends!" Kyle says cheerfully. "At the cost of sleep anyways," he adds quietly.

Kyle grins at Myna whose mouth is curling up even through her scowl. The Ace trainer's hand is gripping his shoulder tight, and he knows the man is genuinely pleased.

He feels kind of warm to be included in this fuzzy atmosphere even if he is still irritated about his non-existent love life.

The three of them jump as the two forgotten customers clap wildly.

Kyle lets him go to run a hand through his hair sheepishly, and Myna turns bright red. He decides to give an awkward bow.

Because this right here is his life, full of drama and insanity.


	10. Love is Complicated

Kyle throws him a bone and doesn't interfere with his coffee dates with Myna. As much as he appreciates it, he can already tell it's a lost cause.

You know a girl just isn't interested when she keeps asking about your best friend's taste in women. He hates to break it to her, but—

"Well, the thing is," he rubs his neck, "I've only ever seen him interested in guys."

Myna's face falls, and he flinches at the heartbroken look on her face.

"Well, to be fair, only one guy. Specifically that one guy," he amends.

Myna doesn't say anything more, and he's not sure what to do. He quietly sips on the rest of his coffee for the remainder of the date, wondering if he should try to break things off amicably.

He brings it up to Kyle the next morning. Roger's good to talk to on lonely days, but he's even worse when it comes to girls.

The two of them eat breakfast that consists of nothing but malasadas in one of the parks. It's the only time they can let out their pokemon all at once.

"Just be friends then," Kyle advises. "It's not hard."

"Can guys be friends with girls?" He wonders.

"Sure, but first you got to stop thinking of them as 'girls.' " The Ace trainer says, throwing two malasadas towards his Arcanine.

The Arcanine snaps up both effortlessly. He hands a malasada to Chansey who's waving its arms in excitement.

"What do you mean?" His brow furrows.

"Well, first, they're women, not girls. Second, just you know, treat them like you would your friends," the man says, patting the sleeping Snorlax he's been leaning against.

"You do know you're my only friend, right?" He looks down at his own breakfast.

"What about—huh," Kyle blinks, "you don't ever go anywhere outside of work, do you?"

"This is the first time I've been so active, yes," he frowns.

"Well then, all the more reason to keep talking to her!" Kyle exclaims, tossing a malasada in the air.

Noctowl swoops down and catches it before Arcanine does. The giant pokemon lets loose a small stream of fire; the Noctowl replies by circling lazily in the air to taunt it.

Chansey chirps happily next to him, and he takes a bite out of his own breakfast to think about things.

"Hey," he suddenly realizes, "if the last time Myna saw you, you were twelve, how did she recognize you?"

Kyle freezes, a malasada hovering next to his mouth.

"How _did_ she know? Last time I saw her, she was eighteen," the Ace trainer's eyebrows furrow. "She only gained a few wrinkles, but I should be practically unrecognizable."

Unable to think of anything, they agree to meet for lunch and ask her. Kyle takes his leave to make other Ace trainers cry, and he heads to the Pokemon Center to begin work.

...

"So, Myna, when you threw your scissors, how did you know it was me?" Kyle asks, munching into a sandwich.

He takes a bite out of his own salad and tries not to look eager for the reply.

"Oh, um," the hairdresser fiddles with a hair clipper, "I may have followed your career a bit."

"You tracked me?" The Ace trainer says in disbelief.

"Just a bit!" Myna waves the hair clipper nervously.

"He was always moving, how'd you do it?" He asks, lowering his plastic fork.

"He wasn't exactly subtle. Got word that some new trainer named 'Kyle' was taking Kanto by storm."

"Huh," Kyle says, "did I miss you somewhere?"

"No, we never saw each other. I just saw you in some newspaper clippings and on tv. I was so mad at you, but I couldn't stop collecting anything that had you in it," Myna admits.

"Do you still have any of those newspaper clippings?" He asks, curious.

"Just the one that shows him shaking hands with Champion Lance—"

Kyle's sandwich goes flying, and he practically dives at her.

"Where?" The Ace trainer shakes her by the shoulder.

"What?" Myna asks, eyes wide.

"Ah," he blinks, "you'd better make a copy."

He pries the man off and keeps a restraining hand on Kyle's shoulder. He looks Myna straight in the eye and says,

"Because if you don't, you might just make him cry."


	11. I See You and I See Me

"I've found my protégés!" Kyle announces, stomping through the center's doors.

He looks up from his desk and blanches.

"Tell me you did not just kidnap a ten year old girl," he pleads.

"I won't tell you because you'd be wrong!" Kyle exclaims gleefully. "She's eleven, and I nabbed her twin brother too!"

Kyle, with a hand on the young girl's shoulder, motions to someone outside the doorway. A young boy shuffles in and gives him a wave that somewhat resembles the local's.

 _If said locals were shell-shocked and traumatized_ , he thinks.

"Why, when, and what did you do?" He asks, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Chansey makes an inquisitive noise next to him, and Kyle pats the coral-shaped hat the girl wears. She practically beams up at the Ace trainer.

The girl has been nothing but smiles this whole time which clues him in that this is about to get weird.

"Well," Kyle drags out, "I was just on my way to the beach when I noticed these two challenging the bone punks—"

Bone punks being Team Skull, who tend to run the other way whenever they see the Ace trainer.

"—and they were _amazing_!" Kyle gushes.

"And you just decided to kidnap them," he deadpans.

"Well, no," Kyle scratches the back of his head, "it wasn't until Tapu Koko swooped in—"

"Tapu Koko?" He interrupts, mystified.

"It's the island's protector," Kyle informs him.

"I know who that is!" He hisses. "What are you doing with the local deity?"

"Getting challenged to a duel apparently," Kyle pouts, "one that ended in a draw."

"You were amazing Mr. Kyle," the girl assuages. "I can't wait to start training!"

"Right, so! Jace, Chansey, these two are Selene and Helios. Selene, Helios, this is Jace and Chansey," the Ace trainer flaps a hand back and forth.

Chansey waves its arms and gives a coo at the thought of making new friends. He lets out a sigh and pats the pokemon roughly on the head.

"So what in the world made you agree to his insanity?" He questions.

"He promised to help me find a Mimikyu," Helios admits.

"And you?" He looks at the still smiling girl.

"He's going to help me train Popplio and Growlithe, and then we're going looking for the biggest, meanest Grimer on the island!" Selene chirps, pumping both fists.

He almost tells them to get away while they still have a chance; that they have no idea what they're in for, but Kyle is giving him that bright grin that always seems to break his resolve.

"I can you give a few tips on treating your pokemon," he eventually says. "If you care for them right, give them the right vitamins, you can have a professional team in half the time."

Kyle throws him a thumbs up, and he rolls his eyes so hard they hurt afterwards. He gets one of his co-workers to watch his desk and follows them out of the center.

He's only slipping out for an hour, but maybe that'll be enough to mitigate some of the damage.

It's not enough, he finds out later.

He's eating lunch with Myna at the salon when the door is dramatically flung open. Kyle stands there looking close to panicking with Selene held under his arm like a sack of vegetables.

"You've got to help her!" Kyle cries.

He stands up immediately.

"What happened? Did she get hurt? Where's she injured at—no, wait, why aren't you at the center?" He reaches for his emergency kit.

"Alola," Helios deadpans, hidden behind the Ace trainer's jacket, "the only thing hurt is her hair."

He stops and looks at Kyle in disbelief.

"Her hair?"

The girl is shoved in front of his face, and he _stares_. He remembers the girl having short, black hair hidden underneath a ridiculous hat.

Apparently she decided she needed a change. Her hair has been cut haphazardly and halfway spiked with splotches of purple and white running through it. What's in front of him can only be called a monstrosity.

"Oh, girly," Myna says in shock, "that is _beyond_ hurt."

Selene slumps in Kyle's hold, legs dangling helplessly. He tries to look away to save her some embarrassment, but it's impossible.

"Her hair looks like Rowlet decided to make a nest and decorate it with a paintbrush," Helios points out, twisting the knife. "I had to shove her under a bush to keep Hau from seeing it."

He blinks,

"Why couldn't you hide it under a hat?"

The boy gives a him a look.

"The dye's still wet. She gave her hat to Lillie for her to embroider, and I'm not giving her mine," Helios says flatly.

He tries to place the names and fails. He just nods to the boy. Long experience has shown him that there's no sense in arguing with stubborn children.

Case in point—

"I don't know what you did, Kyle, but you're paying for Selene. I'm going back to work. You can cause all the chaos you want, but leave me out of it," he tells the Ace trainer.

Kyle just runs a hand through his hair in reply.

"It'll be fine," he tells Selene. "Myna's really good at what she does."

He leaves them to it and retreats back to the relative safety of the Pokemon Center. At least there he doesn't have to deal with a bored Kyle; something that is far more dangerous than any legendary pokemon.

Munchlax has a stomach ache? Completely normal. Somehow got infected with Cute Charm? He's got the antidote. Got turned into a Yamask and can't leave the mortal plane? That's what Chansey's Fire Blast is for.

His co-workers don't understand how nothing ever seems to faze him.

His peaceful shift is interrupted not even an hour later. Kyle bounces into the center and gestures towards him before bouncing back out.

He prays for strength and leaves Chansey to guard his desk.

"Jace, Jace, look!" Kyle grins.

Kyle's gently pushing a happy Selene by the shoulders, and Helios is standing next to them with a disgruntled expression.

He blinks and then blinks again.

"Kyle," he struggles to find the words, "why does she have your hairdo?"

Selene grins that horribly familiar grin from beneath short spiky, blue hair.

"She's going to be awesome, just like me!" Kyle beams. "Except better!"

He covers his face and lets out a helpless laugh.


	12. Diary of a Mad Boy

When he's twelve, he's dragged kicking and screaming to the middle of nowhere. He's taken to a ranch somewhere in Hoenn.

His parents try to take his new Growlithe away, but he bites them when they try. His parents slap him in turn but give up when he hangs onto the pokeball for all he's worth.

(He's worth far more than they think, but less than he assumes.)

It's hot, not as hot as Alola, but it's close. He already knows he hates it here and can't wait to move again. His parents don't unpack, and he doesn't get it at first.

We're worried about you, his mother tells him with large eyes.

You need a stable home, his father says next.

They leave him at the ranch in punishment for his misdeeds in Kanto and Unova, and he's left clutching Growlithe's pokeball.

A vague thought of "Maybe it won't be so bad" enters his head. He soon regrets ever thinking it.

His parents leave him with a family who are indebted to them; it's a family of a man and woman with their four children.

They take him in with sour faces and ill tempers. The woman is the worst, the oldest child the next. The man does what he can to get away from the house, and only the youngest is slightly tolerable.

They force him to work long and hard; they push the jobs nobody wants to do on him while the other children get to slack off. The only thing that makes him happy is the knowledge that Growlithe enjoys the wide open space.

It's when he returns to the house one day, upset from nearly getting crushed by a mean Tropius that he sees the children messing with Growlithe. They throw rocks and sticks which the pokemon can easily dodge, but then the woman comes out and has her Marill blast Growlithe with a Water Gun.

He grabs his pokemon and rushes back to his room. It's the last straw, he decides.

The next day, he strategically places pieces of straw with tar on them all over the ranch. The day after that, he sends the youngest child out to gather berries and has Growlithe use Ember the moment the child is gone.

He'd like to say he stayed to watch the place burn with a grin on his face, but he knows better. He hightails it to the nearest town before putting on his panicking child act.

His parents are upset and believe he has something to do with it. They're not wrong, but he feels no guilt. He's furious they left him with those people for six months without so much as a phone call.

They leave him in Slateport City next. It goes better since they leave him by himself. He makes no friends and starts doing small jobs for money.

He's thirteen and angry, far angrier than when he was twelve.

He wants to use the information he's learned from Team Rocket; he wants to hurt people and destroy their reputations. He wants to get what he wants.

Thing is, he knows he's not strong enough to handle the repercussions. The Boss is something from his nightmares. He's read the files; he knows who it is and just how powerful he is.

If he wants fate to bow to him, he's going to have to be strong enough to take the hits and bite back.

Growlithe, his ever loyal companion, makes no fuss when he packs a bag and forces the pokemon to steal money and a ship pass.

He wants to get strong enough to take down Giovanni which means he's going to have to start training. He makes plans upon plans.

His first stop is Johto. He's going to get a Dark type pokemon, and then he'll make his way to Kanto. Johto is currently trying to make their own league, but he can tell it won't be any time soon.

(The man trying to get it started is also calling dibs on being Champion. He's an idiot.)

Hopefully, it won't take too long. He wants to be a registered trainer before he's fourteen. Supposedly, Kanto gives out starter packages to those starting thirteen and younger, and now that he's homeless with limited funds, he needs all the advantages he can get.

Johto is more underdeveloped than the other places he's been. It's charming, in its own way. It's old fashioned, more so than Kanto, and he struggles to fit in.

He learns that appearance means everything; people are more likely to go out of their way for a boy with good manners than one who'd like to melt everyone's faces off.

The only reprieve he gets is when he sets up camp outside the towns. For once, he's grateful to his parents. They taught him all he needs to know to survive the wilderness which saves him money.

He soon learns that Johto's pokemon battles aren't regulated yet. This means that anything wagered and earn can be anywhere from large sums of money to actual items.

This motivates him like no other; he catches a Hoothoot and a Poochyena and trains his pokemon into the ground. The Poochyena can't keep up, and he releases it in disgust.

He goes looking for a bigger, tougher one and comes across a massive Mightyena with one eye. He falls in love even as it tries to tear out his throat. Hoothoot saves him from being eaten by evolving into Noctowl, and he swears to treat her better.

It takes a bit longer to get Mightyena to obey him, but he's soon raking in the cash from unsuspecting trainers. He makes up for his losses by stealing both money and secrets. He makes enough to live on and almost forgoes his trip to Kanto.

Then he runs into a nasty group that seems to deal in smuggling pokemon. He ends up stealing a stolen Bulbasaur and a Seel. He runs for Kanto as fast as he can, but not before leaving a tip for the local police.

He barely makes it in time to register; he turns fourteen in two weeks and manages to get his hands on the starter package.

He realizes he shouldn't have bothered when he's handed what amounts to a small bag of potions and pokeballs. He barely keeps from laughing at the irony.

He's pushed himself so hard to get the starter pack, but by pushing himself he no longer needs the starter pack.

He keeps it anyways, money not spent is money kept. He starts his real journey and trains to take on the closest Gym.

He's fourteen, and he's taking Kanto by storm. His face is on newspapers and tv; the name "Kyle" is highly recognized. His team is full of power houses, and casual trainers go out of their way to avoid meeting his eyes.

He never really notices to be honest; his eyes are only focused on one person. He takes on the Gyms and every person of note. He gains a Snorlax and gets his pokemon evolve.

He barely sleeps and trains non-stop. His pokemon stick with him through thick and thin, and they make it to Viridian City.

He squares his shoulders, takes a breath, and steps into the Gym. His palms are sweaty, but he knows he can defeat the Team Rocket leader.

A teen with blue hair and a white suit greets him.

Giovanni's not here, the teen says.

For a moment, he's confused. What do you mean he isn't here?

The teen announces himself to be the stand-in Gym leader and throws out a Houndoom. He answers with Dewgong. He uses Snorlax to win the rest of the fight and gets thrown out of the Gym by a rather aggravated loser.

He's left staring at his Earth Badge in bewilderment. He doesn't understand. He wanders around Viridian City in a daze.

This is not what was supposed to happen. He was supposed to beat Giovanni, prove himself to be the best. It was supposed to end with him conquering his own fear.

What happened, he wonders.

He's at a loss with nothing to do. A week of drifting gives him more insight than he's ever had before. It's the first time he's stopped to simply rest and think.

At first he thinks he's finished, but it's not the end, not really.

He no longer needs to worry about his parents taking his pokemon away or abandoning him. He doesn't need to worry about money, so long as he keeps battling. He's more than sure he can beat any thugs that try to take him down.

He's gained what he wanted, loyal companions and power. Now that he has them, he has no idea what to do anymore.

So what now?

He turns his eyes towards the Elite Four. Well, he's already made it this far.

Mind made up, he takes on Victory Road. He fights his way to the top and pushes his pokemon as far as they can go.

The Ace trainers give him a real workout, and he feels nothing but the deepest of respect for them. Their jackets are also pretty, but he thinks they could be designed a bit better. Maybe a darker red?

He makes it past Lorelei, Bruno, and Agatha. It takes a lot of healing items, but he thinks he actually has a chance. He's always wanted power, and now the title of Champion is in his grasp.

It's a wonder he doesn't keel over from the excitement.

His dreams are crushed brutally by a former Elite Four member. The newly made Champion Lance defeats him soundly; he has to take a few days to mentally recover.

Then he decides he's not quitting.

He challenges the Elite Four almost every other day and gets to know them quite well. Agatha finds him stupid but endearing, Bruno gives him tips on finding his own center not just his pokemon's, and Lorelei sort of sniffs at him while giving him tidbits of the Sevii Islands.

Lance manages to say a lot while saying nothing at all, and he can't quite stop himself from hanging on the Champion's every word despite it. He learns about Dragon types, different trainer classes, and the Dragon's Den.

He also learns that the Champion is looking for two Elite Four members, one to fill his previous spot and one to fill Lorelei's who will be leaving soon.

Lance tells him "If you were older," and he doesn't know why his chest kind of hurts.

His days of battling the Elite Four come to an end once his Mightyena passes away. It's not anyone's fault, old age brought the demonic canine down.

Still, his emotions get the best of him, and he releases Venasaur and Dewgong. In the end, he doesn't regret it. He's done nothing but use them for battle; they deserve a nice rest.

It doesn't take long for him to figure out where he wants to go from here.

He decides to tell Lance his plans, and the Champion surprises him with a box. He's told to wait until he gets to his destination to open it.

He finishes the rest of his goodbyes and leaves for Hoenn in an effort to track his parents down. Once there, he opens the box only to find a deep red jacket, a newspaper, and some papers.

Stunned, he reads the headline that says, "Johto Officially Joining Kanto's Pokemon League!"

The papers identify him as Johto's first registered Ace trainer. He's speechless for the rest of the day.

Not even a week later, he's forced into joining a crazy cult that wants to summon some sort of sun god and boil the water out of the world.

He takes on exactly three Gyms before running away to Sinnoh.

He manages to find his parents in Canalave City. It doesn't go well; they all end up yelling at each other. His parents take off in a luxury cruise ship to get away from the confrontation, and he has Snorlax stop them.

He really should have thought things through on that one.

The ship sinks, and in a rare form of familial solidarity, they all make a run for it while covering each other's tracks.

They set up camp in Sunnyshore City and take a moment to work things out. He finds it in himself to forgive them, and they hand him a Pokegear to stay in touch.

He gets his hair spiked and dyed blue the next day. He finally takes his Ace trainer jacket out of the box and decides it's time to get to work.

He leaves his parents and goes back to training. He catches an Abomasnow and a Gible. He defeats all eight Gyms sometime after he turns sixteen.

He releases the Abomasnow back into the wild and sends Gabite to the Dragon's Den. Abomasnow missed home too much, and Gabite was too much for him to handle.

He spends almost a year in Kalos earning badges before returning to Johto. He wants to check out their Gyms and maybe attempt to take on the Pokemon League again.

He's seventeen, visiting Olivine City, when he runs into a gloomy boy that doesn't like pokemon. His life kind of takes off from there.


	13. Love Makes You Jump Like A Moron

Multiple POV

* * *

Helping Jace become a Nurse Joy is more of a nightmare than he anticipated. He's running on nothing but coffee and catnaps, and he's not even a student here!

Getting the boy into the program was a piece of cake (he's pretty sure the director doesn't want his involvement with Team Rocket getting out), but helping him study while under so much pressure is like nothing he could have foreseen.

He's never wanted to know the anatomy of every single discovered pokemon, and he's certainly never wanted to have to break so many reporters' cameras while making it seem like an accident.

That's not even counting all the girls that go looking for something to distract them from the stress of school life.

It's only the second year, and he's already fantasizing about leaving for Victory Road.

He takes a deep breath and tries to enjoy the quiet morning with freshly-brewed coffee. It's peaceful on the dorm rooftops, and the glimpse of sunrise is enough to give it all a serene glow.

"Hey."

He doesn't understand it when it happens, not at first.

He turns around, lips parted for a greeting, only to feel his breath taken away. Jace stands there, hair framing his face, and sleep still clouding his eyes.

The dim light hits the boy's face just right, and he feels like he's just been punched in the gut.

"What's wrong?" Jace frowns.

"Nothing, just tired," he lies.

He's not sure what's going on, but he thinks his morning has just been ruined.

This happens three more times before he gets it.

The last time happens when Jace is chatting up one of his classmates. They begin talking about Chansey which makes Jace's face light up. The boy's lips curve into a wide smile, and his eyes sparkle.

It's when he can't stop staring at Jace's smile, at his lips, that he thinks—

 _Oh._

He gulps and dashes down the dorm's hallway and towards the roof. He thanks every known deity that Jace doesn't care to follow after him.

He sort of needs a moment.

His legs dangle over the rooftop, eyebrows furrowed and face pulled into an uncharacteristic frown. His eyes never leave the ground below him.

He's sick, he realizes.

He can hear many voices—all of them female—in the distance. They don't matter, and he keeps listening for that one voice so different from the rest.

He's always known he was messed up, but this is a new low, he muses to himself.

Jace is supposed to be his brother in all but blood. Jace is supposed to be that little kid who needed him to keep the Ghastly away.

Jace is not supposed to make him feel like this. He's not supposed to be in l—

He starts choking on his spit.

 _Jace is seventeen for Arceus' sake!_

He punches the roof so hard his knuckles start bleeding. He hangs his head in defeat.

"Why am I like this?" He asks quietly.

Thinking about Jace—it's wrong, it's wrong, but that smile—is making his chest hurt. He doesn't know if he can bare his thoughts for much longer.

He throws Noctowl's pokeball into the air before shoving himself off the roof.

The pokemon shows her displeasure at having barely caught him by leaving a big gash on his face. He strokes her wings in an apology, and decides to keep away from rooftops in the near future.

He doesn't head back to the dorm, preferring to spend the night at a hotel.

He spends the night trying and failing to sleep, and when he goes to the cafeteria for breakfast, he has to fend off his face from concerned future Nurse Joys.

He fights his way to a table in the corner and makes sure to keep the injury facing the wall. The girls here tend to be equal parts nice and absolutely terrifying.

"Where have you been—what happened to your face?"

He resolutely does not jump and continues to eat his muffin nonchalantly.

"Just a slight disagreement," he mumbles through the bread.

Jace crosses his arms with a frown but lets it go. The boy gives him a few concerned looks before taking a seat across from him.

They ease into their normal banter even as his stomach feels like its pulling itself inside out.

He thinks it'll be fine so long as he doesn't do anything rash, but he soon finds out that it's easier said than done.

He's not sure if it's the way the girls look at Jace, or if it's the way Jace looks back, but it drives him mad. The jealousy and hurt eat at him more than he cares to admit, and it makes him bitter.

The fact that he's feeling any of this at all makes him even more bitter.

Without really thinking about it, he begins to pick fights with Jace. It starts small, and no one thinks much about it at first.

Little arguments with no meaning, cruel remarks he'd never normally say, teasing that goes too far—just anything to stop the unwelcome feelings that seem to have no intention of leaving.

It takes a particularly vicious argument to realize he's been subconsciously trying to get Jace mad at him. He wants the boy to tell him to leave and never come back.

He wants to break the bond they have, but he doesn't want to be the one to do it.

He doesn't want Jace to realize what he's hiding. He's sort of a coward.

That night, he grabs his backpack and flies.

...

 _How dare he_ , he thinks with a scowl.

He's hurt, and he's angry. He doesn't know why Kyle's been such a jerk lately, but the Ace trainer has gone too far.

He's working so hard for that early graduation, and the man has the gall to bring in his mother issues!

Not that he has mother issues.

He scowls down at his essay and realizes he wrote the sentence backward. He scratches it out and sort of accidently scratches out the rest of the essay at the same time.

Not that he was imagining it was Kyle's face or anything.

He ends up sleeping in the library that night and finds nothing amiss until he doesn't trip on the backpack that tends to move around.

It takes a week before he realizes Kyle isn't coming back. He slams a textbook onto the desk and thinks that's fine by him.

It takes another week before that anger turns into worry, and he tries calling the Ace trainer to no avail.

By the third week even his classmates are offering to help him get out of classes to go look for the guy.

It takes a month before he rings up Roger and just starts blubbering over the phone the moment his brother says, "Hello?"

...

"I'm home," he says, shutting the hotel door.

He blinks for a moment.

"Oh."

He hums down at the sandwich clutched in his hand. He's going to have to break that little habit.

He settles down on the end of the bed and tries not to think about anything. The quiet room gets to him, and he releases Arcanine against the hotel's policy.

"Guess it's just us again, huh?" His asks voice muffled against the pokemon's fur.

Arcanine makes a rumbling sound, and he pretends he's not cuddling the fierce pokemon like a lost child.

"Well, I've done it before. What's five years of constant companionship against a life alone?" He asks rhetorically.

Arcanine makes a slight whine, one that makes him smile.

"Yeah, I'm not really alone, am I?"

Not thinking about anything lasts for a good solid month before he's forced to think about it in a rather bizarre way.

"You're Kyle? Would you happen to be Jace's friend?" The Nurse Joy's smile sends a chill shooting down his spine.

The Chansey next to her also seems to be giving off a menacing smile. It's a bit like a scene from one of his nightmares to be honest.

"Er," he takes a step back, and it seems to be all the confirmation the Nurse Joy needs.

"Welcome," she says still smiling, "but I'm afraid you'll have to stay here a while."

Due to longstanding practice, he manages to avoid the Pound aimed towards his stomach. He practically has to dance out of way of the next hit, and flips a table over to keep it between himself and the pokemon.

Everyone else in the center is screaming, and there's a rush to get out. There's a general scream of "Nurse Joy's lost it!"

The same panicking people are also keeping the doors open.

He summons Arcanine, slings himself onto the pokemon's back, and orders the pokemon to _move it_.

"Don't let him get away, Chansey!"

Arcanine takes the Brick Break in stride, and they're practically flying down the open road.

It takes another similar incident involving a Breeder, the move Sing, and some rope before he realizes he has a bounty on his head.

...

He is _the_ dragon master and eventual master of the Dragon's Den. He is the long-reigning champion of Kanto and Johto, and his name is known in every household.

If he decides to "go for a walk" away from every human being in existence, well that's his business no matter what anybody says.

Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to leave him to his privacy.

"Lance! Lance, come see my new technique!"

He is definitely not hiding behind a rock while his alleged followers call out for him.

"Master! Great Lord Lance, where are you?" A man in a cape wails.

He flinches.

 _Right, time for a distraction,_ he thinks.

He whispers an apology to Dragonite as the pokemon flies away, leading his more hard-core fans on a merry chase.

Salamance takes him in the opposite direction, and he breathes a sigh of relief. He's wanted to check on the family of Aerodactyl that's been hiding up in the nearby mountains for a while now, but responsibilities have kept him away.

 _If only they would have stayed Champion_ , he thinks not for the first time.

It's funny that the thought could be about three different people.

Excited screeching cuts off his more morose thoughts, and he recognizes those sounds as happy Aerodactyl.

More specifically, he recognizes the sound of happy Aerodactyl with a fun new toy that will eventually become lunch. He taps on Salamance, and the Dragon pokemon speeds up.

The first thing he sees are three Aerodactyl having the time of their life tossing something red between them. One Aerodactyl uses their talons to toss the object to another who catches it with their teeth.

Alarmingly, the object seems to be screaming.

 _"I'm tastier with sauce you know! You should really let me go get some!"_

He knows that voice. He's having a hard time understanding why he knows that voice.

 _"By sauce I mean my fist inside your—"_

It's Kyle, Johto's first Ace trainer. He should have known.

Salamance lands, and he slides off the pokemon. He straightens his back, puts on the most intimidating body language he knows, and commands,

"Put him down!"

Salamance makes an impressive roar beside him, and the Aerodactyl drop the boy immediately. The Ace trainer lands flat on his face with a grunt, and a flick of the cape have the Aerodactyl flying off.

"Oh wow," Kyle marvels, sitting up, "jacket's fine. It really is as hardy as advertised. Pants are a loss—from the rips I mean, not that I peed myself or anything—"

He prays for patience. He's going to need it.

"What were you doing?" He demands, cutting off the rambling trainer.

"What it looked like. I was letting them eat me," Kyle deadpans.

He crosses his arms and gives the trainer a severe look. The Ace trainer winces.

"I was trying to find a good cave to hide out in," Kyle mutters.

"Hide?"

He taps his cheek in thought.

"Ah, about that bounty then?"

"He contacted you, too?" Kyle asks, gaping. "That nasty, little—"

He clasps the boy's shoulder to stop the tirade in its tracks. It works even if the Ace trainer's face turns red as a result.

"The only thing anyone knows is that a concerned big brother is trying to look out for his family." He pauses. "Well that and the huge cash reward."

"Great," the Ace trainer groans, "now I sound like a runaway groom who left their bride at the altar. I can't believe I have a bounty on my head _again_."

He blinks and goes to ask about the "again" part, but thinks better of it.

"How about we talk about it over a campfire cooked meal?" He suggests.

It's not the solitude he was looking for, but he isn't heartless enough to throw the boy to the Mightyena either.

Kyle pokes his fingers together before shyly saying,

"Okay."

They wait for Dragonite to join them before making camp at his usual hideout in the mountains surrounding Blackthorn City. It's a quiet affair, and he finds it surprising that he doesn't mind the extra company.

Kyle stays withdrawn over the next couple of hours. It's a bit concerning, but it lets him enjoy the peace and quiet he was seeking.

It gets ridiculous when Dragonite actually falls asleep on them.

"Alright, what's wrong?" He finally asks.

"I'm in love with a guy who's seventeen!" The Ace trainer wails before throwing himself backwards dramatically.

"Alright?" He tries to understand. "And?"

Kyle props himself up on an elbow and shoots him a glare.

"I've known him since he was _twelve_. He's supposed to be my little brother. He's a guy who's _seventeen_ ," he repeats the last part bitterly.

He taps his cheek in thought.

"Well, it's not exactly the end of the world. Marriage is legal for sixteen year olds in Johto, and that's after the recent law to up the age."

Kyle gapes at him.

"That's only here! It's twenty in Kanto, and eighteen in Unova. But that's not the issue!" Kyle waves his hands wildly, "He's completely straight, he's supposed to be my brother, and I am a sick person!"

"Have you done anything to him?" He asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Absolutely not," Kyle growls at him.

"Then you're not sick, just confused over your feelings," he concludes. "You've never felt like this before, right?"

"Well," Kyle blushes, averting his eyes.

"Right," he coughs, "moving on. What do you plan to do about it?"

"Do about it?" The Ace trainer repeats brokenly.

"It's not going to go away just because you want to. You also have an angry brother searching the region for you," he points out.

"Hide forever?" Kyle asks hopefully.

"I'll turn you in myself if you try that," he says with narrow eyes.

The Ace trainer wilts and gives him the saddest eyes he's seen outside the Champion floor. He closes his eyes in defeat.

"If you really want some time to think things through, I might have some work for you if you're interested," he offers.

He's not really prepared for the tackle that sends them both to the ground, or when Kyle faints on top of him.

It takes him a moment to recall the other had been an Aerodactyl chew toy and was prone to being stubborn when it came to injuries.

"Dragonite!"

...

"He's been sighted at the Blackthorn Gym, doesn't seem to be leaving," his contact tells him.

"Alright, thanks," he replies.

"Good luck, Roger."

He hangs up the outdated phone with a sigh. Technically it's good news, but he really didn't want to have to confront the man himself.

"Rapidash," he releases the pokemon, "time to show me why you've won so many races!"

The pokemon kicks the dirt at the challenge; its fire brightens to white before settling down in an intimidating inferno.

He slides on a well-worn harness before slinging himself onto the pokemon without hesitation. The tricky part, he's learned, is not the staying on part, but the not letting go bit.

"To Blackthorn City! Let's go hunt down that son of a—" His words are drowned out by Rapidash's sudden cry.

His teeth click together, and the only thing he can think of is _don't let go_. The world passes them by in a blur, and he's forced to take shallow breaths.

No matter how many times he's ridden this particular Rapidash, it always amazes him.

They make it to Blackthorn City in no time. He takes in gulps of air as Rapidash slows down to a trot, the pokemon having no idea where to go from here.

He gently leads the proud beast towards the Gym. Rapidash follows his directions all the while pretending it knows exactly where it's going.

If he was the type to roll his eyes, he'd be doing it about now.

He all but leaps off the Rapidash the moment he spots that annoying blue hair and red jacket.

All he can do is point while the man that has been practically making his brother cry for the past year is standing there munching on a candy bar.

The Ace trainer points an index finger up to sign "one second" at him before scarfing down the rest of the candy bar. Putting the wrapper in his pocket, Kyle opens his arms in a silent, "I'm ready now."

He can feel his eye start to twitch already.

"Alright, you have exactly fifteen seconds before I beat the living daylights out of you to tell me what's going on," he threatens.

He expects a smug reply or even a hostile one; what he doesn't expect is the ominous, thoughtful look that crosses the trainer's face.

"How would you feel if I married your brother?" Kyle asks.

He blinks.

"Rapidash, Flamethrower," he orders.

Rapidash wastes no time and a strong stream of fire is aimed towards the other man. Kyle simply rolls out of the way before springing to his feet none the worse for wear.

"Knew you'd be like that," Kyle laughs. "Take it easy, big bro!"

"If you've been doing things to him—" he seethes.

"Like I would," Kyle says dismissively, "we're not like that."

The other man gives him an intense look, one that makes him uncomfortable in a way he can't describe.

"But I've decided on something very important."

The Ace trainer's Noctowl appears in a dramatic flash of feathers and light, and the familiar glow of a special move wraps around it.

"So, bye!" Kyle waves cheerily.

The Ace trainer grabs onto the Noctowl and is whisked away into the sky immediately.

He has no idea what just happened, and he's left standing there with his pokemon. He decides to fall back to the standard when dealing with the annoyance.

"You little—!" He begins.

...

"I'm home."

"Welcome back," he says, putting the textbook down next to him.

He slings his legs over the side of the bed and narrows his eyes at the other man. Kyle's standing in the middle of the room, backpack still slung onto a shoulder.

There are many things he wants to say; he's had so many imaginary conversations inside his head, it's not funny.

"You're late, coach," he says instead.

"Yeah, well, I'm not sure you wanted a coach that took to jumping off cliffs to get away from his problems," Kyle says. "Well, even if it did actually work once a bunch of hungry Aerodactyl swooped in," he adds absentmindedly.

He's not touching that, not today.

"You going to stand there all day?" He asks.

The smallest of smiles cross Kyle's face before he throws the backpack down onto the unused bed. The Ace trainer unzips a pocket and begins rummaging through it.

"So you know I'm sorry, but that's just paltry words. So for my apology I got you this," he says, thrusting out a familiar item into his face.

"You got me a TM?" He blinks down at the CD before taking it gingerly.

"Yep! It's Fire Blast for Chansey," Kyle beams at him. "You remember how Arcanine melted those Yamask?"

"How could I forget?" He shivers in remembrance.

"Well, now you need to fear Ghost pokemon no longer! It was actually your brother who gave me the idea."

Kyle stands there with a smug look and hands on hips, and he tries to hide the smile he can feel threatening him.

He's not done being mad yet, darn it.

"So what was all that about?" He asks, tucking the TM behind his pillow.

"Ah, that. You see, I—" Kyle pauses and taps his cheek.

"It's very important, I need you to listen to me very carefully," Kyle begins.

He stands up and gives the man a serious look.

"I'll listen to anything you need to say," he tells the trainer.

"Something scary happened to me," Kyle tells him, dead serious, "and it was affecting everything I was doing, saying, _thinking_. It just came on suddenly, as if from nowhere, and it involves you."

Kyle's stare is intense, and it takes everything he has not to look away.

"Me?" He whispers.

"Yes, you see Jace, I—" Kyle grabs him by the shoulders, and he finds it hard to breathe, "—was having a mid-life crisis!"

"What," he says.

"It was terrible!" Kyle sobs. "I couldn't come to terms with it! All the while your brother was hunting me down like I was some Legendary!"

"You're twenty-two," he says in disbelief. "You can't have a mid-life crisis! And Roger did what?"

Kyle pats him on the head and sends him a condescending look. He can feel his eye twitching.

"It's okay, one day you'll understand. Also, your brother is a nutcase, do you realize?"

He sighs.

"Let's just go get some dinner. I'm starving," he says.

"Sounds good. I missed pizza that tastes like cardboard," the Ace trainer reminisces.

"You'll love the new onion special," he tells the man.

"Rumor has it," he pauses dramatically, "it's got Farfetch'd in it."

"Really?" Kyle gasps in delight, "I've got to try that!"

"It's just a rumor," he reminds the trainer as he's grabbed by the arm.

Kyle drags him towards the cafeteria and both of them ignore the pointing and whispering from nosy classmates.

"I'll be able to confirm it for you because you see one time my parents bought me this Farfetch'd, and—"

He groans but doesn't run away, if only barely.


	14. Ye Shall Receive

Their new place outside of Olivine City is a moderate sized home for only two people, and it doesn't take long to unpack most of their things.

Having to pry Jace from Roger's grip was probably the hardest part of the whole moving process. Still, his eyebrows only got a little bit singed, and his pokemon had the time of their lives.

He's never had a place to call home, it's rather…nice.

He's never had a permanent house-mate either. Which is normally nice, but today Jace seems to be doing his evil face.

Whenever Jace does his evil face, it usually means there's a lot of fast-talking to be done in his future.

He doesn't realize how much trouble he's in until the moment he sees the package sitting on the table. A glance tells him it's from his parents, and he feels the sudden urge to run as far away as possible.

His parents don't believe in the value of items; they send only cash. The fact that there is a giant box with a sealed envelope taped to it is setting off all kinds of warning bells.

"There's a note with it. You should probably read it," Jace stands at his elbow with a grin.

Giving Jace a dirty look, he tears the envelope off and rips it open.

 _"To our son that doesn't seem to trust his parents,"_ he reads aloud.

"Well, we're off to a great start," he deadpans.

 _"We are hurt to hear about your breakup not from you, but from your lovely girlfriend. It hurts even more to know that you didn't seem to trust us enough to come forward with your real feelings."_

"Jace," he drags the name out, "what are they talking about?"

"You'll find out," the man says, still grinning wide.

 _"We realize that we may have been pressuring you into a "normal" type of relationship, and that you tend to rebel against our wishes._

 _But it's not fair to your lady companion at all. Leaving her and pressuring your friend into a lifelong commitment just to get back at us is far more than a mere rebellion._

 _It's in your best interest to be yourself with the one you love. Take it from us. That being said, we have enclosed the smartest and manliest dress—"_

"Dress?" He asks incomprehensively.

"Dress?" Jace asks delighted.

He reads the last sentence again before nodding his head.

"Dress," he confirms.

 _"—enclosed the smartest and manliest dress we could find to show your true self and win back your girlfriend._

 _Let her know that it's just a part of you, and show her your charming side! NO BLACKMAILING HER._

 _Love,_

 _Mom and Dad_

 _P.S. Ask her if she wants to wear a black or a white tux. It'll go well with the dress we found in Kalos."_

He has to reread the letter almost twice before it sinks in. Once it does, the first two thoughts come almost at the same time.

 _I'm glad they're so accepting,_ and _Jace must have made quite an impression._

Then he has time to really think about it.

The fact that Jace must have said something to his parents about a dress fetish is not lost on him. Unable to come up with anything to say, he concentrates on shooting the man his best glare; Jace only smiles back winningly.

"You," he begins, "are infuriating."

Then he laughs because it's actually kind of funny too.

"My parents aren't going to listen to me about any of it until I drag your crossdressing hide into the conversation," he says, hanging his head.

His parents may be open-minded, but they certainly weren't good listeners.

"And what will you give me to show up as your girlfriend?" Jace has the gall to ask.

"Man, I got you a house!"

"You got _us_ a house. Not me specifically. So what are you getting me?" Jace smirks.

He has to take the moment to shake his head.

 _Done in by my own running joke_ , he thinks.

"Are you sure we're not actually married?" He pouts.

"If we were, I would have already gotten every penny out of you," Jace informs him.

"Not like you're not trying," he mutters.

"So?" The other man prods.

"How about," he thinks wildly, "a cruise?"

"Done it, like twice," Jace refuses.

"Hot springs?" He offers.

"Not after you convinced the staff I was a girl that one time."

He bites his lip to keep from giggling. That had been a blast.

"Roundtrip to Alola?" He tries.

"Sorry, no," Jace crosses his arms as if waiting for something.

He's got an idea how this all got started, but he's got news for the other guy. It's not happening.

"Look, if you want me to apologize to your brother—"

"Getting warmer," Jace interjects.

"—most of Johto will burn down," he finishes.

"That's probably true," Jace admits, face twisting in thought.

"Tell you what," the other man says after a moment, "you get me a date with a nice, normal girl, no blackmail, no threats, no turns-out-she's-your-cousin, and I'll clear things up with your parents."

He doesn't even have to think about it.

"Deal." He adds, "I'll try not to ruin your date either."

"I'd appreciate it," Jace says dryly.

He sets the letter down and eyes the box with interest.

"You know what? Let's open this bad boy up and see what a manly dress looks like!" He rubs his hands together in anticipation.

"If you ask me to wear it, the deal's off," Jace says preemptively.

"I wouldn't dare!" He exclaims mockingly. "It wouldn't look good on you. There's nothing manly about you, after all."

He dodges the pokeball aimed towards his head, but not the box.

He only has time to think— _how could a dress be so heavy_?—before a familiar squealing pink thing puts him in a chokehold.

(Turns out a manly dress is a weird cross between a tuxedo and an evening gown. It also turns out his parents have good taste. He does look rather dashing in it.)

* * *

Note:

To the Anon to whom I can't reply to, you are 100 percent correct. This isn't a journey about being the best; it's simply a journey about acceptance.

When I first started this, it was solely to practice writing from a 12 year's old perspective, a rather whiny and overdramatic 12 year old. I found it too fun though, and kept coming back to write more for it. It wasn't my best effort; it was never really meant to be read by other people.

I slightly regret the jumpy writing, but I don't think a long drawn out journey would have worked. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to say something!


	15. Pride Does Not Bow

The day that his father walks back into his life, is the day that he finally has off from working at the Center.

It is really, really unfair, he later thinks.

The morning begins as it always does. He makes breakfast with Chansey while Kyle does his best Slaking impression. Chansey dashes around for the usual pans, and he gathers the ingredients needed for a meal for two.

Kyle, who is supposed to be getting their pokemon's breakfast together, stays slumped over the table while Noctowl flies around doing the actual work.

He's learned that the Ace trainer doesn't move until a plate filled with food is shoved under his face and even then, usually has to be prodded to eat.

He only manages to set the plates down before there is a knock on the door. He shares a surprised look with Kyle.

 _People don't knock_ , he thinks, _not here in Johto_.

It was a hard thing to get used to, but if you don't want people to open your doors without warning, you eventually learn to lock everything.

He opens the door to find himself staring into familiar purple eyes. It takes a moment to realize why. He blinks and slams the door shut.

"Who is it?" Kyle slurs from the table.

"My dad," he says blankly.

A crash comes from the table, but he can't focus on it because that infernal knocking starts back up. He debates on whether or not he should lock the door.

Shoulders slumping, he opens the door against his better judgement.

"Hey, Dad," he greets bleakly.

"Don't be so rude!" His dad bellows.

His father, who is much taller and muscular than him, all but knocks him out of the way to get into the house. Before he can get so much as a word out, his father claps him on the back and starts the scrutinizing.

"Not as bad as I was thinking," his dad says looking around. "Still got that Chansey?"

"Kind of have to for my job," he replies dryly.

Upon recognizing its name, Chansey jumps from behind the counter with a chirp. He feels a smile tugging at his lips as the pokemon waves both its arms cheerily.

"Don't you want a different kind of job?" His dad asks with an appalled expression.

Just like that, he feels the smile leave him.

"It's what I want to do," he says stiffly.

His father looks like he wants to say something, but something behind him catches the man's attention.

"Who else is here?" His dad asks.

He looks behind him to the table only to see it empty. Two plates, still full of breakfast, seem to sit there mocking him.

"Oh, well," he fumbles, "just a friend."

"Oho! A friend, huh," his dad says with a wink.

He can feel his face heating up even as the feeling of mortification washes over him. This isn't going to go over well.

"Is she cute?" His dad asks, wagging his eyebrows.

"I'm very cute, thank you."

Kyle walks out from the hallway, fully dressed and pokeballs on display. There's a glint in the Ace trainer's eyes, and he knows this will end in fire.

He closes his eyes in resignation.

"Dad, you know Kyle. Kyle, Dad," he says crisply.

"You—you!"

He risks a peek towards his father. The man is turning red and is trying to murder Kyle with his eyes. He glances over to Kyle only to be greeted with a razor sharp smile.

"Hey-o, Daddy-o," Kyle practically sings, "been a while since your last batch of death threats."

"What are you doing here with my son?"

"Being awesome," Kyle deadpans.

His father looks from the Ace trainer to him and back again. His dad is probably waiting for an explanation, but his throat seems to have closed.

"You're supposed to be gone," his dad finally says.

"Just like you're supposed to be gone?" Kyle asks dryly.

He has an entire explanation ready to go, filled with small lies and embellishments. He can't seem to remember any of it.

"You tried to ruin him," his dad says through gritted teeth. "You're going to ruin him."

"Like how you tried?" Kyle shoots back.

"I did not! Don't try to turn your faults on me!" His dad roars at the Ace trainer.

"I'm not the reason Jace hated pokemon as a child," Kyle replies bitingly.

"You don't know anything! You're just leeching off of my son, you little—"

"Stop!" He shouts. "Stop picking on Kyle already! He lives here okay? This is his house too! We live together, we've always lived together, and we're probably going to keep living together!"

He feels winded. His heart feels like it's beating too fast. The tension in the room is thick, and he just wants it all to stop.

"You're like _that_ ," his dad utters.

It's said with so much disgust that he feels sick to his stomach. He wants to deny it just as much as he wants to ask, " _Why should it matter_?"

"He's not," Kyle interjects before he can say anything, "but I am."

The Ace trainer takes one step forward, head tilting challengingly.

"That a problem?" Kyle asks dangerously.

He tries to think of a way to diffuse the situation, but everything is so maddeningly blank. All he can do is watch the scene unfold in front of him.

"Stay away from my son!" His dad all but yells.

Kyle gives the man an unimpressed look.

"Nope, don't wanna."

"You're doing things to him, aren't you?" His dad accuses.

"What, like giving him haircuts?" Kyle answers obtusely, "Because I do give him haircuts. Saves a small fortune really."

"Jace, stay away from this, this—" His dad sputters.

"Incredibly smart, good-looking person?" Kyle chimes in.

"GAY MAN!"

Absolute silence fills the room. He thinks he can hear Kricketot in the distance.

"I'm not gay," Kyle spits with as much venom as possible. "I'm _demi-sexual_ , thank you very much _."_

Kyle always was touchy about that, he thinks from far away.

"You're a freak."

He can't do it anymore. It feels like something is smothering his head, and he can't breathe.

"Get out," he wants to say.

"Go away," he tries next.

His tongue won't respond to him, and he's left staring at the man he calls, "Dad." He just can't do it, he finally realizes.

He turns on his heel and walks to his bedroom. Slamming the door behind him, he collapses onto his bed, head in hands.

The door opens up a moment later, and he holds his breath until his brain recognizes the blue hair and red jacket. Kyle gently closes the door behind him before leaning against it.

"You alright?" Kyle asks softly.

He should be the one asking that, but he can't. He shakes his head in reply.

"You need me to take care of him?" Kyle asks, frowning.

He thinks about it for a second before reluctantly nodding.

"Just—Just take him away," he manages to rasp out.

"Gotcha," Kyle says darkly.

The Ace trainer takes a deep breath before yanking the door open. Kyle moves with a purposeful step, and he can't help following after.

He doesn't know what's going to happen, and he doesn't really want to see it. But…

His father stands in the middle of the house, still visibly angry. Kyle walks over to the door and slings it open pointedly.

"Out," Kyle growls.

His father puffs up in response.

"I'm not going anywhere!"

"Yes, you are." Kyle disagrees, releasing all his pokemon at once.

Arcanine and Noctowl are released outside, but the familiar form of Snorlax appears in their living room. Snorlax rises to its feet, head almost hitting the ceiling.

"Show our guest out, Snorlax," Kyle orders.

His father reaches for his own pokeball, but Kyle's Snorlax is ludicrously fast. The pokemon almost breaks the coffee table throwing the man out the door. He tries to breathe.

Kyle strolls out the door, leaving him with Snorlax. The big pokemon is attempting to lie down without crushing anything, and he's trying to get it to remain standing to no avail.

He gives up when Chansey taps his arm to let him know the pokemon is there, and he restrains himself from crushing it in a hug in desperation.

"Hey-o, Daddy-o," Kyle sings menacingly, "we're going for a little walk."

"I'm not going anywhere," his father repeats, wiping dirt from his face.

"Yeah? You don't have a choice," Kyle says.

Faster than his father can react, Kyle grabs ahold of the man's shirt as Noctowl clutches onto Kyle's shoulder. They both disappear in a flash of light, and he feels like he can breathe again.

It's a long while before he hears anything. He takes the time to move the furniture around Snorlax, so the pokemon can get comfortable without destroying anything. He eats as much of his cold breakfast as he's going to before feeding it to said gluttonous pokemon.

He fills the pokemon's bowls up and washes the dishes. He starts sweeping the floor afterwards.

He does everything he can to avoid thinking about anything.

He ends up waiting for Kyle outside with Chansey and Arcanine. He's playing a clapping game with Chansey when someone finally shows up.

Only it isn't Kyle.

His father shows up in a flash of light, lip bleeding and livid. He gets to his feet, but Kyle shows up in another flash of light before anything can be said.

"Sorry, couldn't get him to understand 'Don't come back.' " Kyle apologizes, rubbing his face.

It brings something alarming to his attention.

There's a bruise on Kyle's face.

It's not that he doesn't notice the worse shape his dad is in. It's not that he doesn't realize Kyle is fine or that it's his dad who probably needs medical attention.

It's that there's a bruise on Kyle's face, and it is definitely his father's fault.

His father, who has already tore open new and old wounds, has managed to hurt his best friend.

 _His best friend that has been in his life far longer than the old man._

"Chansey," he tells his pokemon blankly, "Fire Blast."

Chansey follows his instructions without hesitation, and a ball of fire is sent towards his father.

"Jace!"

For a moment, he sees his father swallowed up in a wave of flames. For a moment, he realizes what he's done. Then Kyle's Arcanine is there, not even blinking as fire consumes it.

He doesn't understand at first.

"Jace, I did not give you that move to murder people with it!" Kyle shouts, angrily pointing at him.

"No, you gave it to me to get rid of the ghosts haunting me," he says, glaring back.

Kyle takes a moment to just huff, seemingly at a loss for words. Arcanine stands in front of his father protectively, who keeps still as a statue.

"So much like your brother," Kyle mutters, scratching the back of his head irritably.

The Ace trainer turns on his heel and places his hands on his hips.

"Look, you need to go," Kyle tells the man hiding behind Arcanine.

His father remains still, face pale. Kyle walks over to the man, making sure to keep neutral body language.

"Leave now. I'm only saving your hide because I know Jace will regret it, but if you happen to end up dead? No one will ever find you. I promise you," Kyle says, voice low.

"You," his father begins shakily with wide eyes, "you did this to him."

Kyle smiles mirthlessly.

"No, you did this. I don't see Jace trying to murder me," Kyle says wryly.

"Also, his brother may have had a hand in it too," Kyle adds on as an afterthought, "considering he raised him."

Kyle crosses his arms and leans against Arcanine. The pokemon doesn't move and continues to block his father from sight. Chansey glances at him for instructions. He scowls but doesn't say anything.

If the man ignores Kyle's offer, there's always another Fire Blast waiting for him.

"Jace," his father tries, "you don't want—"

"Old man," he interrupts irritably, "send out your pokemon like you always did when I misbehaved. See what happens this time."

It's all bubbling to the surface, this anger, this resentment. He used to believe he deserved it, deserved all of it.

Thanks to Kyle, thanks to Chansey, he knows better. He knows he has the right to be angry, and now he revels in it.

So many times he reached out, tried to patch things with his father.

No more, he thinks. This was the last straw.

"Get out of here and never come back," he's finally able to say. "If you hurt Kyle again, there won't even be _ashes_."

His father leaves shortly after that.

He doesn't remember Kyle slowly walking over to him, or the Ace trainer calmly herding him inside to the kitchen table.

So lost inside his own head, he doesn't even realize he's sitting down until Chansey hands him a mug filled with tea. The pokemon chirps at him in a comforting manner, and it's all he can do to give it a grateful pat on the head.

Kyle sits beside him with a mug of hot chocolate. They don't say anything for a minute.

Then—

"You good?" Kyle asks.

"No," he says immediately.

He thinks about everything that happened.

"I hate him," he finally says after a long moment. "I hate him more than I hate my mother."

Kyle leans forward, but doesn't do anything else.

"I used to think he'd come back if I could only get over my fear of pokemon. I used to think the reason he avoided me was because I was a disappointment."

He snorts,

"I guess I was right."

"You might be his disappointment," Kyle says, "but he's yours and your brother's disappointment. Your mother's too, probably."

"Everyone's just everyone's disappointment then, right?" He laughs bitterly.

"You're not mine," Kyle says quietly. "Or Chansey's. Or the boys entering the Nurse Joy program. Or Roger's."

He opens his mouth to argue that last one.

"Roger always—"

"Roger," Kyle cuts him off before he begins, "was his own disappointment. He wanted to be his father, but he's since realized what that actually means."

"You are the best thing that has ever happened to him," Kyle says fiercely, "and to me."

His tongue feels unresponsive again. He's left staring at the table.

He's not going to cry, he's not.

"I'm calling your boss. You're not going in tomorrow."

He makes a noise in the back of his throat.

"We're going," Kyle chokes slightly, "we're going to your brother's to—to—"

"Have dinner?" He guesses, voice equally tight.

"To _hang out_ ," Kyle says with heavy revulsion, "and probably _spend the night_."

The Ace trainer's expression is laden with so much disgust and loathing, he can't help it. He lets out a small "Pff" that quickly escalates into full blown laughter after Kyle makes a face screaming betrayal.

"Oh come on! You remember this is the guy who decided to chase us down with a sword! Only it turned out to not be a sword. Do you remember when—"

Tears do end up falling from his eyes, but it's from laughing so hard.


	16. Through an Endless Diamond Sky

-Kyle-

"Kyle. Kyle, wake up. Please."

His eyes crack open, and he attempts to look up at the pleading voice. His head, so very heavy, stays where it's at. He wonders what happened. There's a tight grip on his upper arm, and the wall he's leaning against is shaking.

"Can this thing go any faster? We need to get to the Center now!"

Someone starts yelling about knot speeds, and he realizes he's on a boat. That accounts for the shaking. Now why does his neck hurt so much?

"I don't care about any UB-whatever! Run past it and get us there. _Now_."

Ultra Beasts, right. Those weird alien things. Bizarre Jellicent looking creatures that appeared all of sudden. At the Aether Foundation headquarters.

It comes back to him all at once. The kids—Selene and Helios—had asked him to come to Aether Paradise with them. Something had felt off, they said.

His own instincts had begun screaming the moment he stepped foot on the island. Something off couldn't even begin to describe the feeling. Then that Lusamine woman had opened a portal and—

Oh. He'd been eaten by an alien.

He had shoved the kids out of the way of the bizarre creature only to get wrapped up in the world's worst hug. After that, he remembers overwhelming fear and nothing else.

Not his fear but the alien's. Somehow their senses had fused together, and the Ultra Beast had been so utterly afraid.

He feels kind of bad for it.

Not too much though, his neck is killing him. Also, Jace sounds like one moment away from a panic attack. Nothing had dissuaded the man from accompanying them, citing that a professional pokemon healer was exactly the person they needed to bring.

He wonders whether Jace regrets ever stepping foot on the island. He wonders if it was his friend who freed him from the beast or if it was the kids.

He wonders when the boat will finally stop moving. His stomach's not feeling too well.

"We can't outrun it! Two Fallers are too good for it to pass up!" A stranger's voice barks out.

What's a Faller, he silently questions, and why are they being chased?

"Aren't you supposed to be from an agency that deals with these things specifically?" Jace asks accusingly.

"That doesn't mean I can fight it!" Says the ever helpful stranger.

"You know what? Fine! _I'll_ slow it down," Jace exclaims.

The grip on his arm disappears, and he can make out a hand reaching for a pokeball around his waist. It's a struggle, but he manages to grab the hand before it can take off with his Arcanine.

"Just me, Kyle," Jace tells him lowly. "I need to borrow your pokemon."

It takes a moment before he connects the words to the hand in his grip. He squeezes once before letting go. He trusts Jace with any of his pokemon.

Jace grabs his Arcanine, whispers something he can't catch, and disappears from his limited sight. His eyes close against his will, and he almost falls asleep without his friend's presence keeping him awake.

"Chansey, Arcanine, Fire Blast!"

An ungodly screech jolts him back to alertness. Jace keeps calling out for Fire Blast, and the air starts getting so hot, he's starting to sweat.

That is an insane amount of fire.

He eventually falls back into unconsciousness after a silence settles in with a nice breeze. It's no big deal. Jace is there after all.

He dreams of a world under the sea. Strange creatures roam around the distorted world, and the air is oppressing. He's not scared though; it feels like home.

He wakes up to a white ceiling and the sound of pokemon barking in the distance. He feels like he tried to have a fistfight with Snorlax and lost badly.

He vaguely recalls that might actually be the case. His pokemon hadn't taken his capture by alien very well, and Snorlax has quite the temper with anyone that jeopardizes the food source.

"Kyle!"

"Jace?" He turns his head, wincing at the pain.

The man, holding a food tray, stares at him from the doorway as if seeing a ghost. He checks to make sure he didn't actually turn into a Yamask.

"What's up?" He asks upon finding nothing out of the ordinary.

"You idiot!" Jace screeches with food tray trembling and in danger of spilling.

He makes a face at the accusation. Isn't screaming at patients illegal or something?

"Why didn't you dodge? Why did you let it get you?" Jace questions, turning around to slam the tray onto a counter.

He considers the past events while staring at Jace's back. He replays everything he said and did. He can honestly say he couldn't do any better.

"Those things had reach with their tentacles," he eventually says, "and I was more worried about throwing the kids to safety."

He examines the quivering form of his best friend. He needs to know what happened afterwards, but it's going to be hard. Not so much for him as it will be for Jace.

"What happened after that?" He asks gently.

"What do you think?" Jace snaps, turning to face him. "You fused with that thing, your Snorlax held you off while the kids ran into a portal that led to who-knows-where, and I was left to wonder if you were going to kill me or if I had to kill you!"

Seems about right, he thinks while rubbing his stomach. The alien had been terrified for good reason. Giga Impact was not fun to be on the other end of.

"Just when I was about to get serious, the kids came back with this weird pokemon, somehow unfused you, and we were sent tumbling into a portal," Jace tells him.

Jace, rubbing eyes tiredly, falls silent, and he knows there's more to this story than being rescued and getting to a hospital. He looks around for his pokemon when the man makes no move to speak. Alarm sets in when he sees no pokeball in sight.

"My pokemon?" His neck screams in agony as he twists it to keep searching.

"They're right here," Jace says, picking up a backpack off the floor, "even Snorlax, thank goodness."

A new set of alarm bells go off at that statement. Jace sets the backpack down, and he stares at the needle in his arm. For a moment, he sees white tentacles.

"What happened after we went through the portal?" He asks slowly.

Jace doesn't answer him. His neck hurts, as does everything else, and he's starting to wonder if the alien is actually the one responsible for the pain. He gives the man a pointed glare until Jace breaks.

"We fell," Jace whispers.

He almost regrets asking when Jace's face morphs into a devastated expression. His fingers curl into the thin blanket around him, and he waits quietly.

"We fell over the ocean. A woman's Pelipper caught me," Jace chokes, "but not you. You hit the water."

"Her Seel retrieved you," Jace continues after a long moment, "and I had to give you CPR. I think I cracked your ribs. Then that thing showed up—"

"Thing?" He interrupts.

"I don't know how to describe it!" Jace says, throwing his hands up. "It was a weird rocket plant-thing that chased the boat. Another Ultra Beast, supposedly. I had to borrow your pokemon—"

He remembers that part.

"—and I blasted it until it left us alone. Then we got you to a hospital where you've been unconscious for a _week_. I almost thought you weren't going to wake up, but you weren't in a coma—"

He holds up a hand and attempts to stop the oncoming tirade.

"Well, I'm awake now," _and in a lot of pain_ , he adds mentally, "so could you skip to what you haven't said yet?"

Because Jace is on the verge of a breakdown, and it's not about him as much as that hurts to admit. What could be worse than best friends being eaten by aliens, rescued, almost killed again, and then unconscious in a hospital?

"We're in a world that's nearly identical to our own with no way back," Jace blurts out. "We have no money, house, or family. We don't exist here."

Ah, he thinks, that would do it.


	17. Don't Panic and Know Where the Towel is

-Jace-

He doesn't break down until Kyle's been discharged from the hospital, and the two of them are staying in the motel room provided by the UB Task Force. The agency is also responsible for paying for Kyle's medical bills which both helps and fuel his breakdown.

"We can't get home, we're either test subjects or live bait, and we're indebted to these guys," he sniffs into his pillow. "There's a good chance an Ultra Beast will eat me, and I'll never see my brother again."

He feels the tears coming and tries to wipe his eyes on the pillowcase. It doesn't help.

The bed dips as Kyle takes a seat next to him. A hand starts gently stroking his hair, and he sniffles harder. He tries not to think about how he almost had to live in this new world alone.

He already wakes up crying from nightmares of the Ace trainer's death; he doesn't need to sob about it while awake.

"It'll be okay," Kyle hums, still petting his hair. "We've had worse."

"Worse than being in a different dimension?" He chokes out in disbelief.

"Well, we're not surrounded by gangsters trying to kill us and eat our pokemon," Kyle points out. "We're currently living in a very nice motel by the beach. All our pokemon are here with us, we're both alive and well, and we can go out for ice cream anytime we want. Sounds fine to me."

He snorts into the pillow. Of course Kyle's definition of fine depends on whether or not they're in a life or death situation.

"The way I see it," Kyle says, "we managed to get to this world, so there has to be a way back."

The Ace trainer stops messing with his hair to start rubbing small circles in his back. He takes a shuddering breath.

"Until we find it, the Ultra Beasts are going to keep tracking us down. The UB Task Force needs us as much as we need them, so we use them while working on our funds," Kyle continues. "I'm going to take all the local hotshots' money, and you can work on being this world's first male Nurse Joy all over again."

He moves to give the other man the most horrified look he can manage. He didn't even think about his now useless medical degree. Everything he ever worked for has been taken from him; his achievements don't exist here.

"Don't worry," Kyle tells him with a dangerous smile, "I got you into school last time, and I can do it again. Just give me the word."

He recalls the school life with its endless tests and essays. The all-nighters he pulled trying to memorize information he still hasn't used to this day. He wants to say "Not a chance" or "You're kidding, right?"

Then he remembers the teary-eyed trainers clutching their pokeballs and the smiles that lit up their faces at seeing their partners well again.

"I don't think the International Police would be too thrilled with that," he ends up saying weakly.

He gets a condescending pat on the head.

"You just leave them to me," Kyle says.

Not four days later, he's staring at a letter express mailed all the way from Johto. He doesn't even huff as the piece of paper gets snatched out of his hands.

Kyle hasn't just entered him in the Nurse Joy program; he gets to take placement tests that'll determine how much schooling he'll actually need. If he can test out of all of them at a hundred percent, he gets to take the final exam and make his final research paper.

"Let's go pick you up some books," Kyle says after giving the letter a glance over. "Wouldn't hurt to brush up on everything."

"Why do I ever doubt you?" He mutters.

Kyle just grins at him.

Studying becomes a great distraction for him, and as the days go on, he almost forgets he's in a different dimension entirely. This Alola isn't much different from his own after all.

"Did you know that there's a Pikachu Valley on Akala Island?" Kyle bursts into the motel room.

He throws his pen down in disgust. There's no way he can forget with this moron around. He slams his notebook shut with a sigh. He notices Kyle carrying a take-out bag.

"What's to eat?" He asks.

"I brought you a burger. Figured you were getting tired of Chansey's eggs, though how when those things are delicious is beyond me," Kyle replies, tossing the bag to him.

He makes a face at the Ace trainer. Sure it saves money, but how Kyle can eat those things every day is a mystery to him. He'd rather forage for food, but Chansey takes offense over having its eggs rejected.

"How'd scamming travelers out of their cash go?" He asks flatly.

"I would never!" Kyle gasps. "I am an official tour guide, thank you very much!"

"And does the agency know you take unofficial trips for extra cash?" He snorts when he gets no answer. "Thought so."

He ignores the pout aimed towards him. He's not blind to Kyle's darker habits, and he's sure there are worse things the Ace trainer is doing. If it means eating something besides flash sale food, he can definitely look the other way.

"I saw the kids today," Kyle says after settling down on the bed. "Not Selene and Helios, the ones they hang out with."

"Really?" He gapes.

They'd been unable to find anyone they personally knew; there are no traces of Myna and the family they'd been staying with. Even his co-workers have been swapped with new faces.

"Saw 'em while I was giving a tour around Hau'oli City," Kyle nods. "Weirdest part was that there was another boy and girl running around with them."

Kyle goes quiet, eyebrows furrowed, and he decides not to bother the man about it. Kyle had gotten incredibly attached to the so-called "protégés" and to see someone else in their place must have been upsetting.

"Hey, do you remember what to do if someone comes in claiming they've seen someone turned into an Abra?" He asks, getting an idea.

"That question is still on the exam? Seriously?" Kyle lets out a laugh.

"I can't remember it all," he holds up a book, "help me study?"

He's aware he can't do much—Kyle's the one that's keeping them alive at this point—but finding a distraction? He can do that, and if it benefits him in the long run, well, that's just being smart.


	18. Fight Against the Pain

-Kyle-

"Arcanine, finish it off!" He hollers, clutching the railing of the boat.

The pokemon lets loose a stream of fire, and UB-04 screams in response. Instead of firing back at the cruiser, the Ultra Beast screams again and jets off.

"Not again!" The driver cries. "It's getting away!"

The boat speeds up, hitting a wave harshly. He bites back a cry as the railing hits him in the side. Arcanine lets out a displeased rumble; the pokemon is struggling to remain balanced on the bow of the boat.

"Just give it up already! We can't catch up to that thing!" He screams over the noise of the motor.

The driver—a UB Taskforce patroller—makes no reply, keeping the breakneck pace after the fleeing alien. Cursing, he hooks an arm over the railing and tries to recall Arcanine to the pokeball. His chest hits the metal bar just right, and he's seeing stars.

Fear, overwhelming fear. Need to flee. Need to go home. Scared, need power. _Power to kill everything_ —

A loud roar snaps him out of the flashback. Grunting, he raises the pokeball and recalls Arcanine. He mouths a thank you to the pokemon before the beam of light takes Arcanine away.

"No, keep it out! We can catch up!" The driver shouts desperately.

He doesn't bother deigning that with a response, choosing to get a better hold on the boat's railing instead. The bar whacks him in the mouth, and he swears vengeance.

The moment this boat gets back to land, he's punching that guy straight in the mouth.

Despite the driver's best effort, UB-04 disappears beyond the horizon just as he knew it would, and they're forced to turn around. The boat stops at the closest port, Akala Island.

He heads for the nearest store that sells pain pills, trying not to limp the whole way. Getting beat up by the sea and a piece of metal is not fun. Not to mention that he hasn't fully recovered from— _not strong enough, pain_ —well, he hasn't fully recovered.

A straw hat, flying on the wind, smacks into his chest. It flops down onto the ground, and he stares at it. Even headwear is trying to take him down today.

"Ah, my hat!"

He lets out a sigh. Body shrieking in protest, he reaches down and picks the hat up. He regrets it immediately as it becomes a struggle to get air to his lungs.

He hasn't told Jace that he stopped taking the medicine for his ribs. He's got to cut costs where he can, and temporary pain is something he can deal with.

"Here," he shoves the hat towards the girl in front of him.

The girl takes it, thanking him, and he steps to the side with the single-minded focus of getting to the store. He almost crashes into a boy wearing a red bucket hat.

With a start, he recognizes these two as Selene and Helios' counterparts. The desire to see how they stack up to his kids wars against the thought of making the comparison. The choice gets taken out of his hands.

"I'm Artemis," the girl says, calmly waving her arms in the standard Alolan greeting, "and this is my brother, Apollo."

The boy makes a much more enthusiastic gesture, and he thinks, _that'll do_. These two are definitely their own persons. He introduces himself with a grin.

"I see you guys are trial-goers," he says. "Any chance you up for a battle?"

Artemis and Apollo meet him with grins of their own. The pain that seems to engulf his entire body these days gets drowned out by the excitement he can feel building.

"We're always up for a battle," Apollo tells him cheerfully. "So who do you want to fight?"

He rubs a thumb over Noctowl's pokeball. The pokemon would never forgive him if he took the easy way out.

"I'll take you both on," he declares. "Two on two."

Both kids' eyes light up and he knows it'll be worth the hassle of commanding an extra pokemon. Artemis and Apollo take a few steps back, each reaching for a pokeball.

"We've already beat Kiawe's trial," Apollo warns him. "This won't be easy!"

"Oh, and just so you know, you've got blood on your cheek here," Artemis says, tapping to a spot on her face.

"Really? Huh, that's not mine," he says, wiping where he thinks the girl's pointing to. "Must be my boat driver's. Never get on a boat with a crazy person, kids."

He releases Noctowl and Snorlax into the street, and the kids counter him with a Mantyke and a Grubbin. He chortles; they're going to have to do better than that.

"Grubbin, use Spark on Noctowl!" Apollo shouts.

"Mantyke, Headbutt that Snorlax!" Artemis commands.

"Noctowl, dodge it, and Fly as high as you can! Snorlax, take a Rest, buddy," he calls out.

People stop to watch, and he decides to drag the fight out as long as possible. Entertaining the crowd while battling is probably a leftover from his contest days, but he can't deny the thrill the audience's reaction gives him.

It's a bit nostalgic that Tapu Lele interrupts their fight. Instead of demanding a one-on-one duel, it gleefully scatters a handful of shiny scales over the entire street. When it disappears, it takes most of his pain with it.

He throws back his head and laughs upon realizing that all the pokemon are also at full health. He can't exactly defeat them in one punch after his earlier display. It's what he gets for being a vain Vulpix.

He wonders what Jace's face would look like if he brought these two back for a visit. He'd have to come up with a reason for not being at work though. Jace doesn't know about his deal with the UB Task Force, and he intends to keep it that way for a little while longer.

Well, he's always been good at inventing believable lies; he'll think of something. There's no way he can't show off his new set of protégés.


	19. Have Egg, Will Travel

-Jace-

They've been in this alternate Alola for over five weeks now. He thinks the shock should have worn off by now.

He stares out the Pokemon Center's windows, blinking back tears. His Roserade Tea remains on the table untouched. It's a waste of money, but he can't bring himself to care.

He was only supposed to be in Alola for a year. Get the job done with a smile and go home to his small house in Olivine City. Now his home with its squeaky floors and ever dirty walls is out of his reach.

He might never see Olivine City either as the UB Task Force won't let them leave Alola. He's stuck here indefinitely, and the only thing distracting him is schoolwork. That won't last forever; he's taking his placement exams in three days.

The testing will be done here in the local Pokemon Center. It's nothing he can't handle, but it seems wrong to forgo the proper channels considering he's signed up with Johto's program and not Alola's.

At least he has that small comfort. His newly created paperwork cites him as a resident of Johto. He's not sure when that region became home instead of Unova, but it probably had to do with—

"Guess what? I've found new protégés!" Kyle's distinct voice rings out in the Center.

Startled, he looks away from the window only to come face-to-face with two children ensnared in a gleeful Kyle's grip.

"Oh, my ever-loving Ho-Oh," he says with dawning horror, "did you kidnap two eleven year olds again?"

"Get this," Kyle chortles, "their names are Artemis and Apollo, and they just moved to Alola. They're starting the island challenge!"

Kyle beams at him, clutching the children closer. Neither seems to have a problem with the tightening hug, and he's certain this is the start of something truly bizarre. He tries to find something to say that's not a prediction of doom.

"Those are contacts, right?" He asks, looking in Artemis' direction.

Impossibly wide eyes that are a bright, unnerving yellow blink back at him, and his gaze moves to the girl's nose.

"Kyle said I'd look intimidating with them!" Artemis chirps.

"Of course he did," he says flatly.

"I tried to get my hair done like his, but the stylist wouldn't do it," Apollo pouts. "Blue spiky hair is so cool!"

"I'm sure we can find someone," Kyle consoles with a hair ruffle.

He rubs his face wearily. Of course these three would get along spectacularly. Not even a different world could stop such a troublesome friendship.

"So how'd you meet? And aren't you supposed to be working?" He asks pointedly.

"I took the day off and bumped into these two on Akala Island," Kyle tells him.

He blinks. Kyle's not the most hard-working individual he knows, but skipping work is out of character for the Ace trainer. A suspicious feeling begins forming in his gut.

"What were you doing on Akala?" He asks.

Kyle's eyes light up in a dangerous way. Before he can attempt to take back such a stupid question, Kyle slings off the backpack used for work. His jaw drops as a pokemon egg is shoved into his face.

"You know how the Mantine Surf course is right next to our hotel?" Kyle jiggles the egg, grinning.

His brain connects the dots quickly.

"Don't tell me that's a—"

"Mantine!" Kyle nods. "We're going to raise a surfing champion!"

"What's this 'we'? Do you even know how to surf?" He takes a long sip of his cold tea for lack of a better option.

Though he keeps his tone as acerbic as possible, it's a legitimate question. Mantine Surf never caught on back in their world. Unless Kyle's had a water pokemon previously, he's never known the man to play in the water for fun.

"I'm going to sign up and take lessons as soon as these two are ready to fight the Akala kahuna," Kyle says. "I promised to train them first."

Artemis and Apollo high-five each other before boasting about winning in no time. Kyle, cradling the egg, beams down at them with an absolute affection.

He takes another sip of tea and watches in wonder. There's no sign of pain in the Ace trainer. He sees none of the signs: no hunching of shoulders, gritted teeth, or curled fists. Kyle seems better somehow. There's a more genuine grin on the Ace trainer's face.

"I'm not doing all the work," he warns, fighting back a smile. "I'm going to be too busy to raise a pokemon, so you'll just have to actually do something for once."

He won't spoil the mood by rationalizing why they shouldn't get a new pokemon. The gentle grip Kyle keeps on the egg is reason enough. What's one more distraction in their new life, he thinks with fond exasperation.

Kyle pretends to be indignant, and the kids begin playfully mocking the Ace trainer. He lets himself smile for the first time in weeks.

...

He does end up finding out why Kyle no longer seems to be in pain. He gets it out of the Ace trainer by the next morning.

With two days left until his tests, he cracks open a textbook, pokemon egg carefully balanced in his lap, and ignores the groaning lump of curled blankets.

"Kill me," Kyle moans from the bed.

"You made your bed. Now lie in it," he says without looking up from his book.

"How is Tapu Lele my fault?" Kyle cries.

"You know full well you have to earn their attention," he says. "I don't know what crazy stunt you pulled this time, but you deserve the side effects."

That's not to say he isn't glad that Kyle's no longer injured, but he also knows the rumors surrounding the deity. Hangover symptoms as a repercussion for the instant healing are one of the better possibilities.

Kyle lets out another groan, and he gives the egg a gentle pat. Poor thing has a crazy life ahead of it.


	20. Let's Get Down to Business

-Kyle-

He's not exactly sure when he decides he's suspicious enough to start digging, but between his job as a tour guide and his "other" forms of employment—

 _"Kyle," Jace begins slowly, "why is there a bag of gold nuggets under the bed?"_

 _"What bag?" He asks airily._

 _Drat, he thinks. He'll have to find a new hiding place. Shame since Jace never looks under the bed anymore, not after that one incident._

 _"Don't pretend you don't know!" Jace shouts._

 _A loud knock from the other side of the wall causes Jace to pause. He puts a finger to his lips and makes a shushing noise. Jace, knowing when to let sleeping Growlithe lie, asks no more questions after that._

—he manages to find some rather upsetting information. Or rather, he should say, the upsetting lack of information; what he doesn't find is far more alarming than what he does.

The UB Task Force doesn't just have a shaky background: it doesn't exist. It's true that the International Police have had a hand in their new paperwork, but from what he can tell it's done as a personal favor on someone's behalf.

He's got a sinking suspicion as to whom. There's only one person he knows of that has a vested interest in Ultra Beasts, and he is nowhere near ready to deal with that again.

"Kyle?"

The whisper startles him into opening his eyes despite knowing that only darkness greets him. He lets out an inquisitive hum and wonders what time it is.

"Think the Aether Foundation is like ours?"

He keeps his head pressed against the pillow, listening to the creaks coming from the cot next to the bed. He recalls the new evidence that points to a terrible truth.

"If you mean 'Is Lusamine still crazy?' Then, yes, I think she is," he ends up mumbling.

Let Jace live in ignorance just a little while longer. It'll all eventually come out in the end, but with any luck, he'll be able to get them both out of Alola by that time.

"I hope the kids will be alright," Jace says quietly.

He makes an affirmative noise and waits for another prompt. Sleep takes him as the silence stretches on. He ends up drowning in dreams of fear and homesickness.

The smell of hot tea brings him to consciousness. He rolls out of bed with a grunt, managing not to take the covers with him out of long-standing practice. A coffee mug gets shoved into his face, and he crawls to a chair.

"From Chansey," Jace hands him a soft boiled egg as the pokemon coos in the background, "don't stay out too late, okay? I want to go get dinner to celebrate being done with my paper!"

Waking up gets harder every day, but there's a constant reminder on why it's worth it. He manages a sleepy smile even as he starts mentally rearranging his plans. That Aether employee better be thankful; they're safe from him for now.

The days pass on, and he can practically feel the invisible timer above their heads. He's not sure what's going to happen exactly, but he begins training his pokemon in earnest.

He's been slacking lately to run around with Alola's black market dealers. No idea why Jace hasn't caught on to that one; the kids' new dragon pokemon had to come from somewhere.

(He's not proud to buy from pokemon poachers, but he values Artemis and Apollo's lives over pesky morals.)

Preparation for the coming storm takes most of his focus, and he forgets about Matine's estimated hatching date. It's almost fate that it happens during the morning while Jace and he are having breakfast down at the beach.

The glow takes him by surprise, and he squats to get a better view of the egg resting on the beach towel.

"It's hatching!" Jace squeals, accidentally knocking him over.

He grumbles as any attempts to rub the sand off end up in futility. He shoves Jace back in revenge. Ignoring the angry shout, he focuses on the egg with anticipation. He's forced to turn away once the glowing reaches an unbearable intensity.

A happy clicking sound lets him know it's safe to look. He feels the edge of his lips curl as a wide-eyed Mantine looks back and forth between Jace and him.

"Oh thank goodness it really is a Mantine," Jace mumbles. "The world couldn't handle you with a baby pokemon again."

"Don't be so dramatic," he says, patting the curious pokemon. "I only ever used your Happiny for emergencies."

"You made grown men cry," Jace tells him flatly. "How many sob stories about a young girl and her Happiny did you make up again?"

He smirks and rubs the pokemon's antennae. The Mantine lets out a happy rumble, and he sets his eyes on something further down the beach.

"You and me, Mantine," he coos, "we're going to get top place on that ranking board."

"Oh, not this again," Jace sighs.

"I will not let a guy surfing in a kimono beat me again," he swears. "I refuse!"

Jace, eyes rolling, reaches out to trail a finger over one of Mantine's fins. The pokemon lets out pleased noises, and he grins at the happy scene before him. This was definitely one of his better impulses.

Jace leaves soon after to get ready for a shift at the Pokemon Center, and he spends the rest of the morning playing with Mantine on the beach to get the pokemon used to the world around it.

When the sun hangs high, he places the newly-hatched pokemon in its ball and gets started on riskier activities. First things first: contacting the UB Task Force to see if any of the creatures are in the area.

"There are no signs of activity at this moment. Keep on standby until then," is the reply he's given.

He hangs up the motel's phone with a sigh of relief. There's something else he wants to do today and chasing Ultra Beasts is not it. No, what he wants to do is far more dangerous.

"You ready?" he whispers to Noctowl.

The pokemon's beak clicks softly as talons dig into his arm. Stroking Noctowl, he glances around the cover of the tree.

"Hypnosis," he commands quietly.

The pokemon takes flight, silently approaching the lone Aether Foundation employee taking soil samples. The man doesn't notice the attack until it's too late.

Noctowl meets the employee's eyes, and a second later, it's a mindless body that stares back. It's a sharp reminder as to why psychic pokemon are so widely feared.

"Good job," he praises, dragging the man into the bushes. "It'll last all day, right?"

Noctowl lets out an indignant hoot, and he grins, waving a hand in apology. He knows better of course. Noctowl's never let him down, but that doesn't mean he doesn't like ruffling some feathers.

Because he wants the hypnosis to persist without weakening, he's forced to do the stripping instead of using a suggestion. He obtains the clothes, a digital device, an ID number, and a name.

"Well, Mr. Devan," he tells the unconscious body neatly hidden away, "today was your unlucky day."

No one will come looking for the man anytime soon either. The rest of Aether Foundation's Melemele soil team is being distracted by some hired help as a precaution. It's most likely unnecessary as this guy has been working without a partner for a while now.

"So, any idea on how to do this?" He gestures to the sampling kit on the ground.

Noctowl, who keeps an eye out in the tree above him, gives him an unimpressed look.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," he says cheerfully.

He examines the materials with a hum and fingers Snorlax's pokeball. Can't be responsible for something if it's been crushed by a wild pokemon, he figures.

"So great, having pokemon by my side," he sings under his breath.

With a smirk and an adjustment of his new hat, he leaves for the Aether Foundation's boat, smashed sampling kit in hand.


	21. The Pokemon Identity

-Kyle-

"You there! What are you doing?"

Experience keeps him from freezing on the spot. He tucks the folder under his arm and turns around with a dull expression. A pretentious looking man in a lab coat wearing giant green glasses scowls at him.

"Working," he answers flatly.

"How dare you take such a tone with me!" The man exclaims. "Don't you know I am the Foundation's Branch Chief?"

It figures that it's management that gets in his way. Not breaking character, he gives only the signs of a put out, overworked employee.

"What can I do for you, Branch Chief?" He sighs and slumps his shoulders.

"You can start by telling me what you're doing with that classified information!" The Branch Chief demands.

"It's needed for cross-referencing," he shrugs. "I don't know any more than that. She didn't say."

"Project SK-47," the man hisses, "of course she would think to one-up me!"

The Branch Chief begins muttering lowly, and he fights down the desire to start cackling. He settles for an impassive stare.

"Carry on, then," the man eventually says. "Just know that I, Faba, will be the one responsible for the miraculous breakthrough! Tell that _woman_ to leave the file on my desk once she's through. I will be reviewing the notes for any errors."

Branch Chief Faba strolls away with a flourish, and he's positive he's no longer faking his flat expression. How is such a person in management? While a good thing for him, he pities the actual employees who have to put up with that.

He counts to fifteen before opening the folder back up. Grabbing a camera from one of the outfit's many pouches, he quickly goes through each paper. He keeps an eye on the door this time.

Not that he's certain he can hide the evidence of his activities fast enough. More likely he'll have enough time to launch an ambush before needing to flee.

He only relaxes once he's filed the folder back into place and finished his glance through the room's computer. He sort of questions why it's not password locked but figures that the clearance needed to get into the labs is password enough.

Ms. Wicke's secretary had been very helpful in getting him access, not that anyone knows that.

He leaves Lab B only to be met with an environment suit, a stack of papers, and a, "Take these to Lab A, no time to explain."

He blinks down at the papers in his arms before watching the scientist run into the room he just left. Unable to do anything else, he makes his way to the other laboratory.

Thankfully, there's no one there to explain himself to. He sets the papers onto the desk and eyes the examination table in disgust. It's been used recently.

Lab A supposedly contains nothing relevant to the information he seeks, but he feels compelled to give the room a look-over anyways. He's not sure what he'll do with any of Aether Foundation's dirty secrets, but it can't hurt to collect it anyways.

It doesn't take long before the true horror of this room is uncovered. Unlike Cosmog—the tortured subject of Lab B—who has been reported stolen, the pokemon in this lab is still here.

And, according to the file in his hand, is still being tortured.

He looks from the examination table to the cages lining the wall to the pokeball locked inside the secured crate. Memories of watching Team Rocket mistreat pokemon surface inside his head. Jace's disappointed face follows after.

"No, I just got a new pokemon," he moans. "Today even!"

Wide eyes staring at him through a metal cage. The soft whining of a young Growlithe that can't move. The fear of being in an alien world and just wanting to go home. _Stop the pain._

Before he can really think it through, his finger hovers above the crate's keypad. Various escape plans flit through his head, each one ending in a wave of pokemon battles.

"This is a terrible idea," he mutters, typing in the override code. "The alarms are going to be triggered, and I have to somehow go up a level."

The pokeball is released with a soft hiss. He shoves it into a pouch and runs out the door. The alarms go off before he can make it to the room with the elevator. He begins mentally cursing up a storm.

A higher-up had been notified the moment the passcode went through. He has to admit, whoever they are, they have excellent reaction time to unauthorized use of equipment.

"Hey, you, grunt!" A female employee rushes out from one of the other laboratory rooms. "There's been a breach in Lab A! Have you seen anyone unusual?"

He keeps the surprise off his face. Luck may just favor him yet.

"There was someone dressed oddly," he says, thinking about Faba's green glasses. "He claimed to be someone important."

"Of course he did. Which way did he go?" The employee asks.

"I saw him heading for the elevator," he replies, thinking quickly.

"He's heading for the outside," the employee says, aggravated. "Quick, with me! We're going after him!"

"Understood, ma'am," he hides a smirk behind thinning lips.

He follows the woman to the elevator, keeping his body slightly tense as a sign of nerves showing through. The elevator stops one floor up at the docks.

"We'll make sure he doesn't take a boat out of here," the employee tells him. "Spread out and search!"

He adjusts his hat and looks at the docked boats thoughtfully. He was going to have his pokemon get him out of here, but this is a decidedly better option.

He's going to need the keys however. He begins the search and spots his target not long after—a frustrated looking man with a ring of keys attached to a belt. He releases Noctowl, and a finger motion causes the pokemon to fly up high.

"Who's got the keys to the X150?" He asks, approaching the man. "They're in danger."

"I do," the man snaps. "And what do you mean by in danger?"

"Hypnosis," he says.

He catches the body before it can slam into the concrete. He gently lowers the man to the ground and grabs the entire keyring. Noctowl hovers above his shoulder faithfully.

"In danger from me," he tells the unconscious man cheerfully.

He waits until there are no eyes on the X150 before jumping into the unmanned boat. He's going through the keys one by one when he gets a surprise.

"What are you doing?"

He rolls his eyes and tries another key. Nope, that one doesn't start the ignition. He's down to four now; the key has to be one of them.

"What does it look like?" He asks without turning around.

He gives it ten seconds. He's surprised when it only takes seven.

"Wait, you're the intruder!" The woman from earlier shouts.

"Hypnosis," he says, turning around.

Noctowl flies down from the rack above, eyes glowing. The woman doesn't throw out a pokemon in time, and he gives the ensuing blank stare a considering glance.

"I have gray hair," he says after a moment, "and gray eyes."

This should help warp his features in the employee's mind. He didn't go through all that trouble with the cameras to get caught out now. Gray's close enough to his actual coloring that it shouldn't be too much of a stretch.

"I have just revealed myself to be Team Rocket," he continues, "and I am battling you with my zubat."

If the woman's imagination takes that phrase and runs with, so much the better. If not, it's no real loss. He recalls a memory, and a moment of ridiculousness seizes him.

"Prepare for trouble!" He says, striking a pose. "Our boss has plans for this pokemon, and no one's getting in Team Rocket's way!"

Nothing but silence answers him, and he can feel Noctowl's judging stare from above him. He rolls his eyes again and throws the blank-eyed woman off the boat. He winces when the employee hits the dock hard enough to bounce.

Well, Team Rocket's not exactly the gentle type. It should help with the cover story if nothing else.

He goes through two more keys before the boat's engine finally roars to life. With an Air Slash on the line connecting the boat to the dock, he takes off as a handful of screaming employees wave their arms behind him.

He allows himself a satisfied grin once out on the open sea. Since he has the keys to the other boats, it'll be too late before anyone manages to catch up.

Once they're out far enough, he cuts the engine. He recalls Noctowl, who's been hanging on to the console with a tight grip, and releases Mantine into the water.

"We're going surfing," he tells the pokemon. "Just like we practiced earlier, okay?"

The pokemon lets out a happy burble, and he beams down at it. Definitely a worthwhile investment. It takes some tricky maneuvering, but he manages to get onto Mantine without taking a dip into the sea.

Mantine manages to get him to Melemele Island without any issues, and he makes a mental note to get the pokemon a treat later. He's seriously impressed by its stamina; they'll win the next surfing contest yet.

His clothes and the unconscious employee are right where he left them. Changing out of the uncomfortable jumpsuit is an amazing experience and wrapping his beloved jacket over his shoulders is a lot like coming home.

"There you go," he says, propping the man against a tree. "You were just taking a nap after battling Team Rocket."

It was risky, but he's got a new set of blackmail, more information on a way home, and a way to erase his and Jace's existence from the Aether Foundation if needed. Honestly, this would be mission accomplished if it weren't for one thing.

He releases the newest addition to his team into the motel room. A nightmare of a creature digs its claws into the carpet, head shaking.

The pokemon lets out a shrill noise, eyeing him in clear distrust. He relaxes into a non-threatening posture while keeping a hand close to the pokeballs hanging at his hip.

"Type: Null," he mutters. "What an awful name. It's like you're nothing."

He examines the creature's fresh scars and mishmash of body parts. The terrible files of subject BK come to mind. This man-made pokemon was never meant to have a real name.

He lets out a thoughtful hum. Well, the first step to an acknowledged existence—

"What do you think of 'Scotty?' " He asks.

He takes the noise following the question as a positive reply.


	22. When the Light Vanishes

-Jace-

Being this world's first male Nurse Joy is a different experience compared to before. Instead of the usual spotlight, he's moved to the backroom where no one can question him working there.

He's grateful to have an income as well as something to do, but he wants to be out front working the machines. It feels like the Pokemon Center is ashamed of him, and he's growing tired of it.

If he ever makes it back home, he'll never complain about his job again. He definitely won't grumble about staying over late; it's nothing compared to how late they work him here.

"I'm back—" He opens the door to the motel room and stops.

"Welcome back!" Kyle tells him cheerfully from the foot of the bed.

He stares. Lying behind the Ace trainer is the most bizarre creature he's seen since the Ultra Beast. It takes up most of the bed, and its green claws rest in Kyle's lap. Gray eyes stare back at him coldly.

"What did you do this time?" He asks, closing the door behind him cautiously.

He knows Kyle wouldn't let him near the beast if there was even a hint of danger, but he keeps a hand on the door knob anyway.

"This is Scotty," Kyle says, patting a green claw fondly. "Scotty, this is Jace, the one I've been telling you about."

He thinks he hears something crack. It's probably his brain.

"Scotty?" He chokes.

That's the type of nickname reserved for Lillipup and Litten, not—not whatever this thing is. The creature, Scotty, lets out an odd sounding cry.

"He's not an Ultra Beast," Kyle informs him, "but he's not a natural pokemon either."

Well, yes, he can tell. Everything about the pokemon looks like it's been sewn together using random parts. It really looks like a science experiment—wait.

"Where did you find it?" He asks, a bad feeling curling up in his stomach.

"The Aether Foundation," Kyle says grimly.

He sags against the door and rubs a hand wearily over his eyes. Knew it, he thinks. Kyle definitely stole this pokemon-monster-thing, and there's no telling what kind of consequences they're looking at.

He opens his mouth either to ask, "What in the world compelled you?" or to shout, "Take it back this instance!"

Kyle beats him to it.

"They were torturing him," Kyle says with a troubled expression. "They were trying to make a fighting machine."

His teeth click together, and he studies both pokemon and trainer intensely. Kyle strokes the pokemon's claws with the gentlest of touches, and the creature leans further against the man, eyes slightly warmer.

"Tell me everything," he says after a moment, "and pick a new name. I'm not calling it Scotty."

Kyle's lips twitch before settling back into a frown. An ominous feeling crawls down his back at Kyle's serious look.

"Take a seat," Kyle instructs, "I'm about to tell you _everything_."

…

Kyle, he thinks while burrowing his face into the pillow, is an idiot of the highest order.

And crazy. And possibly a Zoroark in disguise.

It's a theory he likes to consider when the sheer amount of mischief the Ace trainer gets into is shoved into his face. It's not like Kyle's parents ever said the man wasn't adopted.

Unable to deal with everything Kyle's been hiding, he latches onto the pokemon's name with a fervor that keeps the two of them arguing for over an hour. Kyle eventually gives in and lets him pick a new name.

They end up renaming the pokemon to Amriel.

It seems to like it well enough. So, that's…good. He tries not to think about why the pokemon needs a nickname in the first place. He fights against the thoughts of pokemon helplessly strapped down to tables in secret labs.

He fails miserably, and his fingers clutch at the bedsheets. If he ever meets one of those scientists, they'd better have a god to pray to, he thinks darkly.

He eventually falls into an uneasy sleep and dreams of Kyle fighting Ultra Beasts in Aether uniforms.

It's a tense affair over the next couple of days, but despite his misgivings, nothing out of the ordinary happens. Work drags on as usual, and Chansey keeps him from losing it multiple times.

Kyle supposedly takes Amriel out for walks when not Mantine surfing. Whatever Kyle means by "a walk" doesn't seem to be calling attention to the bizarre pokemon, so he lets it slide.

He gradually relaxes back into the normal routine and stops looking around for Aether Foundation employees. It's almost enough to forget what's been going on behind his back.

His trust hasn't been broken exactly, but it's going to be a while before he lets the Ace trainer off as lightly as he used to. He'll also be keeping a sharp eye out for any potential injuries Kyle might be hiding.

Perhaps as an apology, Kyle takes him to Malie Garden on his day off. The garden is such a nostalgic delight that he walks across the gold-colored bridge multiple times.

It's not enough that the decorations are modeled after Johto; the plants are direct importations. A piece of home lives and breathes on Ula'ula Island, and not even the tourists bumbling around can mess this up for him.

They end up buying a cup of tea from the shop in the middle of the garden. The tea is a familiar blend from Johto, if slightly sweeter than what he's used to.

"This is good," he says, taking a sip.

They sit on an elaborately decorated bench, taking in the breathtaking view. The cup is warm in his hands, and he presses his shoulder to Kyle's.

This is…nice.

Kyle must think so too; the Ace trainer is relaxed in a way he hardly ever sees. He watches a Masquerain flutter by and feels a slight pang. It should be Butterfree, he thinks.

Naturally, all good things come to end. Since he's sitting next to Kyle, their pleasant day ends with the apocalypse.

"What?" He gasps as the light of day disappears.

Kyle lets out a strangled noise beside him as he whips his head around. A bad feeling sits in his gut. The darkness covering them doesn't appear to be a result of a sudden storm. It's as if the sun suddenly vanished.

He gets to his feet, cup falling to the ground, the moment he hears that familiar, terrible sound. It's an echoing indescribable sound that still haunts him. Kyle grips his shoulder tightly before pushing him away.

"Stay behind me, Jace," Kyle says, voice tight.

Dread fills him, and he takes a step behind Kyle. Another sound causes him to look up. The large and bizarre form of an Ultra Beast rockets towards them from the sky. His breath catches in his throat.

"Let's go, Arcanine—Amriel?" Kyle's shout ends in confusion.

Amriel appears from its pokeball, claws flexing in the ground and rumbling dangerous. They're out of time, and the imposing figure of UB-04 sets down in front of them. A dangerous amount of flames and heat roll off the beast.

He grips the back of Kyle's jacket, and squeezes his eyes shut. There's no way the garden surrounding them will survive this.

"Alright then," Kyle lets out something resembling a laugh, "let's see what you can do, Amriel."

The pokemon lets out a shrill cry, and Kyle's jacket slips out of his grip as the Ace trainer moves forward with Amriel. He watches Kyle's back grow further away from him and tries not to panic.

His eyes flicker to the huge, alien form looming above them to his own pokeball containing Chansey. UB-04 hates fire attacks, he remembers that. Chansey's Fire Blast would be a big help, he's sure.

Despite what the man thinks, Kyle doesn't have to keep fighting alone.

Amriel lets out a pained sound, and he grits his teeth. He's not a frightened child anymore; he's survived haunted castles and falling from the sky.

"Chansey, we're fighting too!" He says, throwing the pokeball.

The pokemon offers him a determined chirp, and he gives a tight smile in reply. He strides forward and takes his place by Kyle's side. Chansey bounds towards Amriel.

"Heal pulse!" He orders.

Kyle turns towards him with an unreadable expression. He grabs the Ace trainer's shoulder and stares straight into the man's eyes.

"We're doing this together," he says, daring to be denied.

"Of course," Kyle says softly.

They turn towards the Ultra Beast and begin issuing orders to their pokemon. Kyle keeps Amriel using Flame Charge while Chansey alternates between Heal Pulse and Fire Blast.

This whole situation is definitely Kyle's fault somehow. The light vanishes and a giant, hostile alien appears? Well there's no way the Ace trainer doesn't have a hand in it somehow.

Even so, there's nowhere else he'd rather be.


	23. Stars Pale in Comparison

Dedicated to sarahgri99, who has left a review on every single chapter.

* * *

-Multiple-

Stalking your one-sided far younger crush who's currently on a date with their crush should be an exceedingly creepy and bitter-felt affair.

Biting into a sandwich from a nearby roof, he watches Jace destroy all chances with the current fling and comes to the conclusion that the only thing he suffers from is cringing sympathy.

Jace, flustered and nervous, looks at anything but the woman's face, and the lady's expression falls as assumptions are made. Nervousness is mistaken for something else, and the woman's plummeting confidence comes across as boredom.

It's a terrible thing to watch. He feels bad for both of them, but maybe he shouldn't interfere this time. Jace has to learn what he's doing wrong at some point.

Oh, wait, that's one of the councilmen's daughters. Of course it is. This lady could get Jace expelled for sexual harassment and take away all chance of becoming a Nurse Joy.

Jace seems to have an attraction for dangerous women; he can always count on the knucklehead to go after the woman most likely to ruin a man's career for not looking her in the face.

Falling for women like that wouldn't be such a bad thing if the guy didn't fail at every single interaction concerning the opposite gender.

"Alright, Noctowl," he says, releasing the pokemon, "time to save our buddy from himself. Again."

He made the mistake of staying out of Jace's terrible dates once. He's never had to create blackmail from thin air and educated guesses before, and he's not looking forward to doing it again.

He feeds the rest of the sandwich to Noctowl before getting the pokemon to Fly him over to the table the couple is dining at. He lets go of the pokemon, timing his drop so he hits the attached umbrella first.

He nails it, and the umbrella takes most of the impact before he hits the tabletop. It still hurts.

"Kyle?" Jace yelps.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" The woman cries, reaching for his pulse before he can answer.

The things he does for love, he thinks with a wince.

It's not like he messes up Jace's attempts at dating out of spite. The man continues to make poor life decisions concerning love, and he meddles only as much as he needs to.

He can't deny that some part of him relishes in driving away anyone who could take his best friend from him though.

The two of them continue on in life together as they are. Jace graduates, becoming rather famous for gender rather than work, and they take a trip to Alola.

Their unexpected stumble into a different version of Alola is something he still has a hard time dealing with. Sometimes he wakes up with a scream in his throat.

"Nightmares again?" Jace asks softly.

He grunts, not bothering to pick his head up from the kitchen table. The cool surface feels good against his forehead, and this way Jace can't see the tears prickling at the edge of his eyes.

He thinks he's been left alone when he hears Jace retreat back to the bedroom. Feelings of relief and abandonment war against each other as he takes deep breaths. He knows one of them should get some sleep tonight, yet he doesn't want to be left alone.

He's startled when something heavy wraps around his shoulders. A light touch runs through his hair.

"I'll make some hot chocolate," Jace says tiredly.

He clutches the ends of the blanket with trembling fingers. He squeezes his eyes shut to stop the tears even as he fights down a smile.

Through it all, Jace never manages to make a real connection with anyone, and he guiltily savors having the man all to himself. Not that he doesn't try to get Jace friends—it's hard as Jace keeps subconsciously rejecting other humans—but he can't help indulging in some happiness that he'll never have to worry about a wedding.

In retrospect, he's sort of an idiot.

The beginning of the end happens once Jace brings home Teri.

A familiar face from the past, Teri attempted the Nurse Joy program only to drop out halfway through. Jace bumped into her during a shopping trip. That chance encounter led to dinner dates to reminisce about the past. These dates went well enough that Jace now brings her to _their house_.

As the days go by with no sign of something going wrong, a terrible feeling hits his stomach.

There's nothing wrong with the woman; she's an absolute delight. There's no glaring flaw or terrible trait that he can indulge in. Teri is genuinely a good person, and it ends up being the worst thing about the situation.

Jace brings home a person that holds no severe consequence for messing up. Who happens to be a pretty lady that can see past the sputtering mess and social awkwardness. A woman with a deep love for pokemon and a smile that lights up her entire face.

Teri is here to stay.

"Hey, Kyle," Jace hesitates one morning.

He gives the man a sleepy stare. Jace fiddles with a napkin nervously.

"What do you think about Teri moving in with us?" Jace spews out in a rush.

It hits like a punch from Snorlax. Keeping tight control over his facial muscles, he makes a point to glance around the kitchen.

"Considering those are her drapes, her mats, and her dishes," he drawls out, "I think she already has."

He does his best to keep the bitterness out of his voice. He does a good job since all Jace does is let out a small laugh. Jace goes back to eating, never noticing that he doesn't actually answer the question.

Unfortunately, there's a lot more of Teri in their house than just those three things. The woman's been slowly moving in since day one.

He thinks about seeing the two of them every day for the rest of his life, happy and in love. A feeling of nausea hits him. There's no getting around it; he can't do this. He needs to leave.

Finishing breakfast against the rising nausea, he begins making plans. His fingers slide against the wood of the table, and he wonders how many times his heart can break.

He takes the happy couple out to dinner a week later.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, how did you two meet?" Teri asks, taking a sip of sparkling wine.

Jace freezes, knife hovering over a piece of steak. Memories of a much younger and stupid Jace cause him to grin.

"It was boring. You definitely don't want to hear about it!" Jace laughs nervously.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," he purrs. "I seem to recall a not very bright kid bridling with pre-teenage angst."

Jace sinks lower into the chair, food all but forgotten, as he recounts that moment with gusto. It wasn't funny at the time, but looking back at it, crybaby Jace was hilarious.

"So that was it!" Teri brightens. "You're his older brother!"

He takes a sip of soda to hide a cringe. The lady's not wrong. In the beginning, he truly did think of Jace as a younger brother, but time changes more than just perspective.

"Older brother?" Jace grimaces. "Him?"

He blinks at Jace. The disgusted face the man makes causes his eyebrows to furrow.

"It makes sense compared to what I originally thought. To be fair, all the other girls thought it too," Teri says, saving Jace from further scrutiny.

"What do you mean?" Jace asks, taking a bite of steak foolishly.

"Oh, I thought you two were together for the longest time!" Teri laughs. "The way you looked at him like he was your whole world, well, it seemed obvious to me!"

Jace chokes, and he fakes a laugh. He leans forward and thumps Jace on the back none too gently. Jace waves a fork threateningly in his direction, coughing.

"Good thing for you it's not like that, huh?" He smiles resentfully to Teri. "You'll be getting him all to yourself soon."

The two stare at him with identical looks of confusion. He steels himself for the hardest decision he's ever made. Smirking, he rips his heart out in one go.

"It's time for me to leave. I'm heading for Hoenn and gifting you two the house. May you live in happiness for years to come."

He holds his glass up in a mockery of a toast at their flabbergasted expressions. Even if Jace and Teri don't work out, there'll be a new Teri down the road eventually. This way, he thinks with a pang, he can finally let go.

...

 _"Oh, I thought you two were together for the longest time! The way you looked at him like he was your whole world, well, it seemed obvious to me!"_

The words won't leave him alone.

He'll never be attracted to Kyle; there's no getting around that. The female form fills his stomach with Butterfree, and just looking at pretty ladies tie his tongue into knots. Kyle is very firmly not female.

Still, the idea of the Ace trainer leaving turns his blood to ice. He'd always thought that Kyle would stay even if he found someone nice to settle down with.

Maybe it doesn't have to end this way. If Kyle finds someone too then they could bond over their married life together like normal adult friends. Their relationship would be different—they'd no longer be housemates—but that's completely normal.

The problem is that Kyle has never shown any interest outside of a single person.

Plus, he can't really imagine what it would take to marry Kyle of all people; they'd have to be able to put up with crazy antics and near criminal acts on a daily basis. He tries imagining Kyle with another person and—

Oh. He looks down at the snapped pencil in his hand. Well, that's new. He sets the pieces to the side and reaches for another pencil.

Yeah, it'd take someone with incredible patience who's experienced in dealing with absurdity like interdimensional portals. Good luck finding someone like that.

The day comes for Kyle to leave. He watches from the doorway as the man packs away everything in the bedroom that can fit into a large duffel bag.

He's agreed to put the remaining items in storage for the man to retrieve later, but he has a feeling those items will never see the light of day again. He blinks watery eyes at the thought.

"Will you at least tell me why?" He rasps out.

Kyle doesn't bother slowing down. Clothes, badges, and sentimental items disappear into the bag with efficiency brought on by years of travel.

"I can't," Kyle says, not looking at him.

So there is a reason, and Kyle would rather leave than talk to him about it. He grits his teeth. His best friend is walking out of his life without even giving him an excuse.

"Why not?" He snaps out.

It comes out angrier than he meant it to, but he can't stop the feeling of betrayal rising up. Kyle bristles in response to his tone.

"Because I can't!" Kyle throws a picture of the two of them into the duffel bag roughly. "Leave it, Jace!"

He's taken back by the sheer venom in the other man's voice. The Ace trainer hasn't spoken to him like that in years. Kyle's face is scrunched up into a frustrated expression, and he thinks back to the last time the man behaved this way.

This is exactly how Kyle acted before leaving that one year during school. He studies the aggravated motions Kyle makes to finish packing. He's missing something obvious.

"Is this because of Teri?" He asks, already knowing the answer.

Kyle's face twitches into a scowl, and the Ace trainer zips the duffel bag with too much force. He watches as Kyle curses and attempts to fix the stuck zipper.

It's not about Teri, not really. He never noticed her back in school. This is about him. He's the reason Kyle feels the need to run away. What did he do that made Kyle leave all those years ago?

 _"Something scary happened to me, and it was affecting everything I was doing, saying, thinking. It just came on suddenly, as if from nowhere, and it involves you."_

That's right. Kyle said something about a mid-life crisis. It'd be easy to accept that answer again, to say that the older man is upset over something so trivial.

He knows better than that. No, if anything, Kyle's upset about the relationship itself. Almost like Kyle can't stand watching him be happy with someone else—

Oh, he thinks from somewhere miles away as the puzzle pieces click together. Oh.

"Goodbye, Jace," Kyle says stiffly. "I'll let you know when I get to Hoenn."

The man slings the bag onto a shoulder and brushes past him. He doesn't bother turning around to watch Kyle leave. There's no slamming of doors or loud declarations.

"Did he leave already?" Teri asks from somewhere behind him. "Oh darn it, I packed him a lunch!"

He stares at the bed in a daze. His thoughts jumble over themselves as he tries to simultaneously deny and accept it. Is it possible? What about? No, it couldn't—but what about all those ruined dates?

"Jace? You okay?"

He lets out a shaky breath and attempts to give his girlfriend a reassuring smile. He fails if her worried look is anything to go by.

"Yeah," he says around the lump in his throat, "just need a minute."

He's going to need more than a minute for this. The room seems to close in on him, and he suddenly feels the urge to go for a walk.

"I, um, I need some fresh air," he mumbles. "I'll see you later. For dinner, yeah."

Two days go by, and he's no closer to finding an answer to the question he doesn't dare ask. Going through memories and pictures tells him nothing—it's all conjecture on his part.

Teri doesn't help matters by hovering over his shoulder as he attempts to find some sort of proof. He eventually gets her to leave him alone by agreeing to a date at the docks. She seems to think he'll tell her what's going on by then.

He's pretty sure she's in for some disappointment on that front. He can't even think about it without going light-headed.

He frowns down at the photograph of the two of them from when he was fourteen. He studies the face of the nineteen year old Kyle, searching for something, anything. He lets out a strangled breath and moves onto the next picture.

He doesn't know what he's looking for.

It takes two more days before he's had enough and does the one thing that makes him break into a cold sweat. He calls his brother.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Roger," he says weakly.

"What's wrong?" Roger asks immediately.

"Wrong, why would anything be wrong?" He squeaks.

He feels the sweat trickle down his neck in the ensuing silence. The sheer amount of condemnation makes him look around for something to save him. Kyle's empty bedroom holds nothing, and it's enough to break him.

"Kyle-left-and-I-think-he's-in-love-with-me-and-I'm-so-confused-help-me," he blurts out.

He's not sure, but he thinks the silence turns from scornful to incredulous. The Xtransceiver shakes in his grasp. He's both annoyed and grateful that Roger hasn't upgraded from an old phone; there's no video of his brother staring up at him.

He is not prepared for the eventual reply.

"You're an idiot," Roger tells him bluntly. "He's always been in love with you."

The words hit him hard enough to leave him breathless.

"It probably started the first time he ran away," Roger continues, ignorant of his muteness. "That guy was weird since the beginning, but he's not a pervert. You were probably what? Seventeen or eighteen?"

He opens his mouth to say something only to shut it with a click. What exactly can he say?

"So what are you going to do about it?" Roger asks.

He stares at the empty dresser across from him. A photo of the two of them once sat in the middle of it. He bites his lip.

"I don't know," he eventually says. "I don't want him gone, but then again—I just don't know."

"Well, figure it out. And soon. If I know anything about that guy, which I do unfortunately, you won't be able to find him after a while."

He lets out a frustrated sigh. His brother's not wrong, but he's not sure he can figure this out in what can be called "soon".

"Just don't expect me to find him for you," Roger warns. "I am _not_ putting a bounty out on him again!"

The call ends with a click, and he stares at the device in his hand in disbelief. Roger's not usually that brusque, so he can only assume the topic is too uncomfortable for his brother. Still, one thing bugs him.

"You put a bounty on him?" He utters blankly to the Xtransceiver.

Understandably, he gets no reply.

In the end, it only takes half a day of zoning out at the Pokemon Center before he comes to a decision. He stares down at the counter, and thinks, _I have to go_.

Chansey pats his hand, and he nods at the pokemon. He grabs the work phone and dials his boss. He attempts to quit, but his boss talks him into taking unpaid leave instead. He exits the Center with determined steps.

It doesn't take him long to pack. In fact, he spends more time planning his search than he does anything else. He almost forgets a very important detail.

"Roger, I need you to tell my girlfriend I'm leaving," he says.

"What?" His brother chokes.

"I'd do it myself, but I can't waste any time," he continues. "She gets home at 5:30. Help yourself to anything in the fridge. Call you when I get to Hoenn."

"Wait just a minute—"

He ends the call, and tucks the Xtransceiver into his pocket. He grabs his backpack and heads for the door. He wasn't kidding about the time; his ship leaves in forty minutes.

He's going directly from Olivine City to Slateport City. He's certain that's what Kyle did, and hopefully he'll be able to gather clues along the way. Kyle's not exactly a forgettable person.

He hasn't quite worked out what he's going to do once he finds the Ace trainer, but he'll have plenty of time to think about it on the ship. The one thing he knows is that he can't let things end this way.

The ship isn't the same one that goes to Kanto, but it's built similarly enough that he can't stop the nostalgia. He walks around in a slight daze, chasing personal ghosts.

He ends up outside on the deck. Chansey hands him a boiled egg with a worried coo, and he pats the pokemon on the head.

"I'm okay," he tells Chansey. "Just thinking."

He leans over the railing, clutching the egg to his chest, and watches the waves hit the ship. The wind ruffles his hair, and he listens to the soft chattering of the people behind him.

"It's funny," he says. "Isn't this like our first trip to Kanto? When we first met Kyle?"

Chansey lets out a chirp, and he sighs. No matter how beautiful the scenery is, he can't enjoy it. He wishes Kyle was here to share this moment with him.

He thinks a lot about why that is on the long trip to Hoenn.

He doesn't give himself a chance to rest the moment the ship stops into port. Backpack on his shoulders, he goes to the one place he knows Kyle would have hit first: the Slateport Market.

He finds some promising leads from the stall owners. He purchases a Growlithe doll as thanks and makes for his next lead.

Dead ends keep him from progressing, and it's not until he's running around Slateport City talking to anyone that might have seen a trainer with a red jacket, that he realizes the obvious.

"Um, hi, this is Jace. Would you happen to know where Kyle is?" He asks, holding the Xtransceiver nervously.

Kyle's mother stares back at him, giant sunglasses perched on her large beach hat. Lips pursed, the woman studies him with horrible intensity.

"He's in Sootopolis City," Kyle's father says from somewhere off-screen.

"He is?" Relief floods him before realization kicks in. "Wait, isn't the only way into the city by flying?"

His face falls. Of course Kyle wouldn't make this easy. Kyle's mother, face softening, throws him a lifeline.

"Don't worry, dear. We'll have someone take you to the city. Wait in the Pokemon Center and give us fifteen minutes," the woman tells him.

Kyle's parents come through for him, and he's soaring on the back of a Pelipper thirty minutes later. The pokemon's trainer flies ahead of him on another Pelipper, and he hangs on for dear life.

It's only now, in the silence of the vast blue sky, that he realizes he has no way to get out of Sootopolis City if he can't find Kyle. Well, if it gets to that point maybe Roger will bail him out?

He doesn't get to think about it too long. The pokemon touches down inside the crater, landing in front of the Pokemon Center. He thanks the trainer for the lift before walking inside.

Nervousness eats at him as he asks around for information about the wayward Ace trainer. He has an idea of what he wants to say to Kyle, but he needs to find the man first.

He's pointed from one "maybe so-and-so's seen 'em" to the next. Hours trickle by, and he feels like he runs all over the city on a wild Swanna chase. Sootopolis, he swears, is made of nothing but stairs.

Nothing comes from asking the locals, and in desperation, he searches around the bottom of the crater where sea meets land.

He doesn't find Kyle.

He finally gives up once the sun starts going down. He watches the water sparkle in the dying light and drops to the ground in defeat. He hugs his legs, resting his forehead on his knees.

Kyle's probably already gone. He'll never catch up to the man. He'll never get to say—

"So I hear you've been looking for me?"

Startled, he looks up. His breath catches in his throat as a familiar figure looms over him. Even shaded out against the dim light, he knows who it is.

"Kyle," he croaks out, hurrying to stand.

The Ace trainer makes no move other than to frown at him. An eternity passes by as they stare at each other. He takes a breath and realizes he needs to say something.

"I want you," he blurts out.

A beat passes by. He feels his face heat up.

"Pardon?" Kyle replies, dumbstruck.

"Wait, no, not like," he waves his arms, "well, maybe, argh!"

He's messing up exactly as he knew he would. Why is it so hard to put these complicated feelings into words? Struck with a sudden urge to make it so the man can't walk away, he latches on to Kyle's arm with both hands.

"You know what? I can't talk to you like this. It's too dark. Take me somewhere lit up," he demands.

It's an excuse to stall for time, but Kyle reaches for a pokeball with an uneasy expression. Releasing Noctowl, the Ace trainer flies them to the top of the crater.

They land on a house with a flat roof. Lamps from the ground give the rooftop a soft glow, and he knows Kyle's been here before. It makes sense; supposedly, Hoenn's greatest sight is the stars that shine over Sootopolis City.

He wonders if Kyle had trouble enjoying the view, wonders if the only thought the man had was a desperate wish to see it together with him.

He doesn't let go of Kyle's arm until Noctowl's been called back.

"What's this about?" Kyle asks warily.

"Do you know how precious you are to me?" He doesn't give the Ace trainer time to answer. "I never realized it, but we've been together for ten years. You've been by my side the entire time."

"That one year doesn't count," he says before Kyle can say anything. "We both know why you left."

Kyle's eyes avert to the ground, and he feels like laughing. He's so stupid to have missed all the signs. It's been five years. That's an awfully long time to leave someone drowning.

"I want you to come home," he says slowly, sounding the words out. "I want you to come back to Johto with me."

Kyle lets out a nasty laugh.

"You really want to pour salt on it, don't you?" Kyle doesn't look at him. "I'm not a good person. I can't stand watching you with someone else. You _know_ what will happen."

Memories of Kyle's darker pursuits come to mind, and he recalls a portion of Johto burning down. He's got an idea. As much as he likes her, Teri stands no chance against Kyle.

"It's either Teri or me," Kyle says bitterly. "And that's no choice."

"It's no choice," he agrees.

He grabs the man by the front of the jacket and pulls. Kyle finally looks at him, eyes wide in confusion. If there was ever a moment to second-guess himself, this is it.

He has no doubts and brings their lips together. Kyle lets out a gasp, and he marvels over how weird it feels. He keeps their lips locked in an attempt to get Kyle to _understand_.

He only leans back when the need for air hits him. He digs his fingers tighter into the jacket; he won't allow Kyle to run any longer.

"Shouldn't you buy me dinner first?" Kyle eventually asks.

He studies the dazed expression and comes to the conclusion that Kyle's completely unaware of having said anything.

"I think we're past that point," he deadpans, "especially since we're getting married."

A blank stare is the only reaction he gets. He waits patiently.

"We're getting married?" Kyle shrieks.

He laughs and rests his forehead on Kyle's chest. The Ace trainer remains as still as a statue, and he revels in this warm feeling in his chest.

It really was never a choice to begin with.

"Your girlfriend? You're straight? I," Kyle struggles to get out, "married?"

"I'm breaking it off with Teri," he says without a hint of sadness. "She's nice, but she's not you."

He smiles into Kyle's jacket and ponders how to say the next bit. He struggled with it himself on the way to Hoenn, and he never found the answer until this moment.

"I like kissing girls," he eventually decides on, "but I like kissing you more."

He leans back and is fascinated by the way the man's eyes glisten. Kyle doesn't look away, and he considers the last point on the checklist.

"Considering we already bought a house together, I think you need to make an honest man out of me," he teases.

They say the stars above Sootopolis City are the most beautiful sight in the Hoenn region. They pale in comparison to the man in front of him.

He smirks and grabs Kyle's face for another kiss. This time Kyle kisses back.


	24. To Have and To Hold

-Kyle-

"Is it trying to fly away?" Jace mutters beside him, and he narrows his eyes.

The inhuman screech of UB-04 echoes throughout the garden, and he recognizes why the creature seems to be building up an insane amount of heat. He makes a split-second decision.

"Recall your pokemon!" He shouts, summoning Amriel back.

Jace follows his lead, and Chansey disappears from sight. UB-04 lets out a dangerous rumble, flames igniting beneath it.

"Arcanine, absorb what you can!" He commands, throwing a pokeball.

He grabs Jace and hugs the man to him, keeping his back to the Ultra Beast. Making sure Jace's face is tucked into his chest, he closes his eyes and braces himself.

He thinks he hears his name being called out.

One heartbeat later, a wall of fire slams into his back, and he loses his ability to breathe. A screaming noise rings in his ears, and he keeps his arms tight. The air is too hot, and _he can't breathe_ —

"Kyle, wake up. Kyle!"

He sputters as something soft hits him in the face. Blinking, he grabs the offender while fighting against heavy eyelids. A plush Growlithe stares back at him.

"Jace," he groans.

"Nightmare," is the immediate reply.

He narrows his eyes at the man sitting at the foot of the bed. Jace takes a bite out of a candy bar, one eyebrow raised mockingly. He squeezes the doll with a sigh.

"Thanks," he says grudgingly.

Jace lets out a noncommittal hum, and he sits up reluctantly. He holds the plush doll to his chest and tries to calm down. Deep breaths and the presence of another person help tremendously.

"Think Professor Burnet's found a way to stop it?" Jace asks softly.

It's not truly nightmares as it is reliving memories during sleep. Professor Burnet, who works with Interdream Zone and Ultra Wormhole research, is currently studying his case. The professor took a special interest once it came out that Nihilego was the root cause.

Of course, the perfect memory recall only started after his second fusion with the creature. _That_ fiasco was a consequence of trying to get home through Ultra Space. Honestly, he tries not to think about it too much; it makes him want to scream.

"Probably not. Let's just go get breakfast," he says, changing the subject. "Candy is not food."

"Is so," Jace replies, hopping up to steal the bathroom like a brat.

He stretches with a yawn and attempts to get up. "Attempts" is the keyword. The hotel bed is very nice, he thinks longingly. Surely ten more minutes wouldn't hurt?

"Up, Kyle," Jace commands from the bathroom, seemingly a mind reader.

"Fine," he grumbles.

It's not until he's changing clothes that it suddenly hits him: _he's in a relationship with Jace_. His hands begin shaking, and he has trouble zipping up his jacket.

A week and a half of moping, crying to his parents, and trying to shatter every feeling he's ever had and suddenly he's kissing Jace under the stars. He can't even fathom how that happened.

He's at a loss on what to do. Does this change things? Well, of course it does, but how does it change things? What does Jace expect from him? What if Jace only wants their relationship to continue on as it has been?

Could Jace already be regretting what happened last night?

He jumps when the door to the bathroom swings open with a bang.

"All yours," Jace tells him. "Hurry up, I'm hungry."

He dashes into the bathroom as panic rises in the back of his throat. He turns the shower on full blast and dunks his head under the stream. He hisses as cold water hits his scalp.

Safe to say, this isn't a dream. Jace really is here with him in Sootopolis City. Last night happened.

Keep it together, he tells himself.

He takes Jace out to breakfast once he's sure he's got a handle on his emotions. There's a good place near the water that serves amazing crepes.

"Aw, man, how many more stairs?" Jace complains. "My knees are really sore!"

He winces in guilt. He'd known the moment Jace had arrived to the city. Unable to face the man, he'd merely watched as Jace ran around from one end of the crater to the other.

He had wanted Jace to give up and go home, but…he's rather hopeless when it comes to Jace's teary face.

"I guess I can carry you," he says with a dramatic sigh. "I'm such a nice guy."

"Wait a minute, don't—" Jace screeches as he scoops the man up.

It takes a little bit of bouncing, but he settles Jace into a princess carry. Jace looks away with a bright red face, arms crossed. He lets out a laugh and continues down the stairs to the restaurant.

"You're so embarrassing," Jace mumbles around a pastry.

"You love me anyways," he smirks.

He had only meant it in his normal teasing manner, but Jace pauses and gives him an assessing stare. He keeps himself breathing through force of will. Did he cross a line?

"Yeah, I do," Jace says with a small smile. "Arceus help me, but I do."

Unable to say anything, he stuffs a crepe into his mouth.

"So where are we going?" Jace asks once their plates have been picked clean.

"Going?" He squints.

"I didn't come all this way and get leave from work to not sight-see," Jace informs him.

He doesn't point out that sight-seeing was probably not the reason for Jace's visit. Instead, he leans back and considers the best places he knows of. Unlike other regions, Hoenn doesn't have much to offer in the way of tourism.

"We'll want to head to Lilycove City next. They've got a famous department store to look at," he settles on.

"Then we'll spend another night here and leave for Lilycove tomorrow," Jace nods firmly.

They spend the rest of the day walking around Sootopolis City and mainly stick to the upper levels. They take it slow due to Jace's sore legs, and they spend a good bit of time striking up conversations with people who recognize them.

"So you found him, good on you!" Another person calls out from the level above them.

"Aha, yep," Jace smiles tiredly.

Jace heads up the stairs in resignation, and he withdraws his hand from where it hovers next to Jace's. Their day pretty much goes like this from morning to night. As it is his fault that Jace seemingly knows the face of every person living in the city, he deals with it the best he can.

By which, he means picking up Jace and running away into the sunset.

"Kyle!" Jace complains.

Notably, the man doesn't try to fight out of the princess carry this time. He races past startled onlookers and towards a more deserted area of the city. If he makes it in time, they will have the most dazzling sight of the pseudo-lake sparkling as the sun sets.

"Woah," Jace breathes from his arms.

He nods and sets Jace gently onto the stone-covered ground before taking a seat himself. No one bothers them here, and they watch the incredible sight in peaceful silence. He can get used to this, he thinks, this feeling of sheer contentedness.

He jumps slightly as a hand grabs his. He tries to pull back, but Jace's grip tightens.

"Stop that," Jace tells him with a frown. "You've been doing that all day."

"Doing what?" He manages to ask evenly.

"Reaching for my hand only to not, you know," Jace squeezes pointedly, "hold my hand."

He stares down at the water which is losing its shine. Night is falling on them, bringing with it a new set of doubts. He thinks on his feelings and how best to voice them.

"Do you actually want this?" The words leave him unbidden.

Jace's sharp inhale makes him cringe, but he continues on, determined.

"You shouldn't have to feel forced into a relationship with me just to make sure I don't leave," he ends up saying.

Jace lets go of his hand, and a moment of silence goes by. He doesn't dare turn to face the other man. At best, Jace will look annoyed, and at worst, thoughtful. He's not sure he wants to know.

"I guess I'll have to keep doing this until it gets through your thick skull," Jace sighs, pulling on his jacket.

He freezes as lips cover his own, and he thinks, _oh_.

It's an awkward kiss—Jace is forced to stretch uncomfortably to reach—but the grip on his jacket keeps him from moving. Jace does eventually let go, but he's not sure he can breathe even then.

All those doubts vanish only to be replaced by a sense of wonder. Jace grabs his hand again, and stands, pulling him up.

"Take me back to that place from last night," Jace tells him. "It's got a nice view of the stars."

"Okay," he says dazedly, "okay."


	25. Happiness is a Warm Cup (of tea)

-Multiple-

During childhood, when he still had a semblance of family, his mother would gush about her wedding to his father with stars in her eyes. Photos and wedding items were brought out and exhibited. "It was beautiful," she would whisper.

His mother never told him how exhausting it would be.

"Long day?"

He picks his head up off the couch cushion and squints towards the door. Oh good, Kyle's brought some take-out for dinner. Cooking is the last thing he wants to do right now.

"Like you wouldn't believe," he utters.

Kyle sets the containers on the coffee table and fetches both forks and chopsticks as the two of them tend to switch between the utensils. Kyle plops down next to him, and they eat dinner on the couch.

"So, it turns out telling all your female co-workers about your upcoming wedding can cause hearing loss," he says dryly.

Kyle, the traitor, starts laughing immediately.

"They ask who's wearing the dress?" Kyle chortles.

"That and then some," he says with feeling.

He knew his co-workers would give him grief considering the amount of times he's denied Kyle as his boyfriend. He did not expect the terrifying interrogation about his love-life. Or his wedding plans. Or his _procreation_ plans.

Just remembering it is giving him a headache. He needs a distraction immediately.

"So how are the kids?" He asks, picking the first thing he can think of.

He regrets it the moment the question leaves his mouth. He's trying to _not_ think about children. Kyle perks up at the mention of the so-called protégés, and he keeps the grimace off his face.

"Helios is the current champion," Kyle informs him, "and Selene plans to grab the title next Saturday. She wants to wait and get intel on the foreigners taking the league challenge."

Kyle continues a steady stream of chatter, and he chews through a piece of fish thoughtfully. No matter how much Kyle hides it, there's a certain wistfulness when talking about the kids from Alola. The Ace trainer probably misses their counterparts, Artemis and Apollo.

He can't say he understands. People come and go all the time, and Alola has been anything but kind to the two of them. He'd be happy to never see any of those children ever again.

That's the difference between the two of them, he guesses. He can say goodbye pretty easily while Kyle has a hard time letting go.

"They, ah, said they were going to help Professor Burnet out on her research," Kyle tells him quietly.

Help research how to help Kyle, is what the words mean. Well, at least they have their uses. The nightmares—memories—aren't getting worse, but the situation is hardly getting better. The amount of times he needs to wake Kyle up is ridiculous.

(It never crosses his mind to let Kyle sleep through it or to move back to his old room)

"Have you asked them about being flower girl and ring bearer yet? Will they have the time? Can they even make it to Kalos?" He asks, changing the topic at Kyle's discomfort.

Not that he wants to keep talking about wedding preparations, but it'll never get done at this rate. He's hoping to get most of the hurdles out of the way before having to break the news to Roger and Kyle's parents. Considering they don't even have the venue picked out, he's most likely hoping for too much.

"They told me if I pick anyone else, they'll crush me with a Legendary," Kyle says cheerfully. "They've got plenty of money for the trip, and their mother's looking forward to it."

"Good," he sighs in relief.

That's another thing crossed off the list then. It's hard enough to organize an actual ceremony, but to have it take place in Kalos—not exactly a hop and a skip away—only adds to the stress.

They have to though; same-sex marriage isn't done in Johto or Kanto. Oddly enough, their marriage will be recognized so long as they marry in one of the regions that approve it.

"I don't see why we can't just get married without the fuss," he grumbles.

"Your brother, my parents," Kyle says pointedly.

It's not exactly a new argument. He'd rather get the paperwork done and have a relaxing honeymoon. Kyle refuses though, citing their familial obligations.

He's pretty sure Roger's going to hate Kyle's guts no matter how beautiful the decorations are. Actually, all things considered, he should review insurance policies to be on the safe side.

"This would be so much easier if we could hire a wedding planner," he groans.

"Maybe next time _don't_ have a girlfriend whose cousin is the only wedding planner in the city," Kyle says dryly.

"There won't be a next time," he promises. "That's the whole point of this."

He can feel himself blush at Kyle's ridiculous smile. It doesn't happen as often as it first did, but Kyle still reacts to the little things that confirm their relationship. He supposes the whole getting married thing will only sink in once it's time to make their vows.

Assuming he doesn't tear his hair out and run away first of course.

...

"I'm going!" Jace calls.

Chansey lets out a chirp, and he manages a "Later" from where he's slouched over the kitchen table. The door shuts loudly, and he debates the merits of falling back asleep where he's sitting. Tables can be comfy, he thinks.

A sharp sound causes him to pick his head up off his arms. Amriel stares at him from the floor.

"You just ate," he says incredulously.

The pokemon claws at the air, and he suddenly knows what it wants. His monstrosity of a pokemon has discovered a new love for baths of all things. Hot water, cold water—it doesn't matter so long as it gets wet.

"Why can't you swim in the pond like Mantine?" He sighs.

Amriel lets out a cry that sounds suspiciously like _shut up and get the pool out_.

"Only because I love you," he tells the pokemon.

He sets up the kiddie pool, and Amriel hops into it before he can finish filling it. Mantine joins the cramped pool with a happy gurgle, and Noctowl swoops in to splash unsuspecting humans and pokemon alike.

"Behave," he says only to get splashed in the face.

He pouts, and Noctowl lands on his shoulder to preen his hair apologetically. He decides to let it go with a grin. His pokemon can get away with whatever they want as long as act regretfully. It's probably a good thing no one realizes this.

"I need to go into the city. I'll be back soon, so watch the house for me, okay?" He says.

He tries not to laugh at the answering cries. Amriel and Mantine look like happy Spheal rather than fierce watch pokemon. He leaves Noctowl to babysit the newer additions of his team. It's not that he can't trust them; it's more that Amriel is quick to attack, and Mantine follows the lead of the highest authority.

"Noctowl will keep them in line," he reassures Arcanine, who lets out an uncomfortable rumble.

No doubt the pokemon remembers the incident with the mail carrier. He runs a soothing hand over the orange fur before heaving himself onto Arcanine's back. It's a short trip to Olivine City. Jace walks the distance almost every day, so it's not exactly a pokemon journey.

He purchases an expensive box of tea leaves, and makes for a small house by the waterside. He hopes the person he's looking for is there. They should be since they supposedly haven't been to work in a week.

(He hopes they're not. It can't be healthy to be cooped up inside the house for that long)

He knocks on the door.

"Yes?" The door opens, and the bedraggled appearance of Teri greets him.

"Hi," he says softly, lifting the tea leaves up, "can I come in?"

Teri looks ready to slam the door in his face. It'd be a lie if he said he wasn't prepared to break into her house like a creep, but they need to talk.

"Okay," Teri deflates.

She steps aside, and he kicks his shoes off. For a moment he thinks Teri isn't going to give him a pair of guest slippers, but Johto instincts win over spite. He finds himself sitting at a small table as Teri brews the tea leaves he brought.

It gives him time to think and observe. None of the familiar drapes or mats that belong to Teri are here. It could be because of conflicting taste with Teri's cousin, who's also her roommate, but he sincerely doubts it. Even the tea cups are different, he thinks, as Teri slams two cups onto the table.

He'd be worried about tampering if it was anyone else, but Teri really is too nice for her own good.

"I'm not going to say sorry," he begins, not touching the tea. "It was Jace's decision, and I can't take responsibility for that."

The woman doesn't look at him, choosing to stare into her tea cup blankly. The tangled hair and puffy eyes make him want to shake someone. Doesn't Teri have friends to drag her out of bed?

"I _am_ sorry for how everything went down. You didn't deserve that," he continues.

He'd been prepared for screaming and tears, to lean against the wall with one hand on a pokeball in case things got violent. What he hadn't expected—

 _"W-What?"_

 _"I'm breaking up with you," Jace repeats, expressionless. "You need to pack your things."_

 _"But why? Why are you?" Teri's lip quivers. "I thought you loved me?"_

 _He feels a shiver go up his spine at Jace's unchanging expression in the face of Teri's oncoming tears. This is not how a man who was planning to propose to his girlfriend should be acting._

 _"What did I do? I can fix it! I promise!" Teri cries out, body trembling._

 _"There's nothing to fix. I don't love you. My future's with Kyle, and you're in the way," Jace announces coldly._

 _He winces as Teri goes completely still. He doesn't want to imagine being on the other end of those words. He loves Jace, but he's pretty sure Teri does too. And right now, Jace is looking at Teri like she's an ugly painting that needs to be removed._

 _"Make sure you get everything," Jace tells her. "I'm changing the locks."_

 _Part of him thinks it's false bravado, a way to sever the bond cleanly with the now ex-girlfriend, but Jace never shows any regret over the next couple of weeks. Once again, he's reminded of that fact that Jace only seems to connect with pokemon._

 _It's enough to make him wonder sometimes: will Jace throw him away too? Then he wakes up to a tired face in the middle of the night and knows he has nothing to worry about._

—what he hadn't expected was helping Teri out the door while Jace groomed their pokemon like it was just another day.

"It should be Jace here, explaining things," he says, finally taking a sip of the tea, "but he doesn't realize what he did. He doesn't view human relationships like we do."

It sounds like an excuse, but it's true. Despite living with and loving her for twelve years, Jace cut his mother out his life without batting an eye. He rather suspects Roger narrowly avoided the same fate; Jace would have never spoken to the man again if Roger had reacted negatively to Jace's career choice.

"You must have felt that something was off even as he asked you to move in," he prods gently.

"I should have known," Teri says miserably to her tea cup. "There was always this wall between us. I just thought—I just thought it'd take time to overcome it."

Clearly Jace thought so too, if the offer to move in was any indication. He wisely chooses not to tell her this. No need to pour salt in the wounds.

"You never had that problem. He was always—with you, he was," Teri gives up and shoots him an accusing glare. "I should have known."

"Can't tell you anything," he shrugs. "As far as I knew, he was straight. Probably still is, but," he trails off.

"Human relationships, right," Teri sighs.

He hums and swirls the tea in his cup. Honestly, he's finished with his obligation, but the fact that no one seems to care if this woman takes a bath seems depressing to him.

"What do you think of this blend?" He asks.

Their depressing chat lightens up, and Teri begins resembling her old, friendly self. He stays until it's time to feed the pokemon lunch. Teri might have had the misfortune to be part of their drama, but she really is a good woman.

Which is why he's going to be visiting every day from now on.

"What?" Teri croaks.

"I'll bring cake tomorrow!" He grins to his new pet project. "Bye!"

Arcanine rumbles in amusement as he slings himself onto the pokemon while Teri tries to grab his attention. The woman has good instincts—he's definitely not going to be making this easy on her—but it's too late. He's already invested.

Her hilariously flabbergasted expressions will absolutely make it worthwhile.


End file.
